Friday, October 31, 2008

I Hate RSS Feeds And RSS Readers

To Many Options
Entire post or a snippet? E-mail or through a reader? Pictures or no pictures? To consolidate or to not consolidate? There are just to many options to "burning" your feed. Instead of working on building your content or helping establish yourself in your niche, you are stuck trying to work this feed to make it look pretty. Unnecessary.

Full RSS feed vs. partial RSS feed
Yeah, okay, this is kind of an addition to "to many options" but I feel this needed it's own bold headline. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger even two people debate about using full or partial RSS feeds.

A partial RSS feed will only show a small snippet of your post to your subscribers and will make them click on the link to actually read the post. This allows the reader to read the title of the article and then make his or her own decision on whether or not to visit the site and read the rest of the post. Now if you have advertising (of course you do, you are a blogger! =P ) on your site, a partial feed will not show it. So you are missing out on unique visitors and/or page views that could ultimately increase the price you charge for advertising, and that's bad.

A full feed shows the subscriber the entire post in their reader. This means they have no reason to visit your site at all. So once again, they miss out on advertising and are basically just reading a newspaper.

Less comments?
If someone reads your posts through a reader they are probably less likely to comment on the post. You want them to comment. You want to build a community around your site and less comments means there are less people contributing.

Less recognition
When someone is subscribing through a reader it is a sign that they like what you write and wish to read more. But, on the flip side there is no reason for them to return. Your site just becomes another story among hundreds of others that someone may be subscribing to.

So if readers are lame, what do you do?
Write great content that makes the reader want to come back and read your posts, but not through an RSS reader. You want your readers to bookmark the site and come back every day. Now for some people that might get annoying but if you are truly interested in the persons material, then you should be coming back and visiting.

I still keep my site available to subscribe because I know that people like to use them, I just prefer for people to bookmark my site and come back every day.
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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Big List Of Social Networking Websites, J-Z

This post has been added to the other list. Go to the big list of social networking websites post and take a look.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Big List Of Social Networking Websites

This is a large list of different social networking sites around the web. A lot of these most people have heard of or are a part of, but there are some I'm sure you haven't heard of. Just joining a few of these will help build your social persona and allow you to network with many people. Take a look at a few, join a few, and promote your site through these.

Badoo
- http://badoo.com
- "Badoo is a truly worldwide online community that provides its members with the ability to communicate and share their lives with people both locally and around the globe. Its many features include the next generation in photo/video sharing and social networking. More importantly, though, Badoo allows its users to gain an instant mass audience for themselves and their work."
- A social networking site that is very popular with 14 million registered users and is considered one of the top 10 community websites in England. It's free, but apparently you can pay to have a higher prominence. Wikipedia

Bebo
- http://www.bebo.com
- "Bebo is the next generation social networking service where members can stay in touch with their College friends, connect with friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out."
- Another social networking site that was bought by AOL in March 2008 for $850m. Registration is free and with over 40 million registered users, it's a very large community. Wikipedia

BlackPlanet.com
- http://www.blackplanet.com
- "BlackPlanet.com is your place to meet and connect with African Americans around the country. Chat or post photos and videos to share your black experience. Look for other African Americans who are sharing theirs—even if you’re searching for news about what’s hot in music, fashion, sports and events or looking for the buzz in business, politics and trends, we are the home for what is relevant to you and your community. This is the largest online community for Africans, African Americans, Caribbean Americans—the entire black family—to network, share an urban lifestyle, find romance, entertainment, and even jobs."
- With over 20 million registered users, it definitely is the largest black community online and one of the largest niche social networking sites. Wikipedia

Broadcaster.com
- Broadcaster’s Social Video Network is the next evolutionary step in online social communication combining the most popular aspects of social networking with our own free broadcasting tools. Broadcaster users can easily integrate their Live Social Video broadcast feed into their personal websites and social networks such as Facebook by using Broadcaster's simple embed code. Broadcaster Social Video offers:

• Instant communication
• Ultimate self-expression
• People watching at its best
• User controlled environment
• Better and safer than being there

- Broadcaster.com is a social video network where you can watch people on their webcam and they can watch you. Here are the people that Broadcaster.com says are in their community, "People watchers, Lifecasters - Online video diaries, Live interactive "shows" - Trivia contest, Professional talent exhibition - Musicians, and VJ style - mixed shows (live and prerecorded combo)." Wikipedia

Buzznet
- http://www.buzznet.com
- "Buzznet.com is a vibrant social media destination representing the next evolution of social networking. Buzznet distinguishes itself from traditional media sites and social networks that are focused on profile pages and communication tools by enabling Web users to program dynamic multimedia communities around the music and pop culture topics they are most passionate about. More authentic, content rich and frequently updated than a website, and more interactive than a blog, Buzznet's integrated media and community platform allows its users to network like never before with leading bands, trendsetters and their peers through self-created content, videos, photos and journals. This unique user-centric approach has attracted more than 10 million users who program, by contributing, combining, providing context and connectivity, making Buzznet a top destination for people seeking the most current and authentic content and news."
- Buzznet has over 10 millions users and is growing every day. This social network is based on music, photos, videos, and pop culture. Wikipedia

CafeMom
- http://www.cafemom.com
- "Launched in late 2006, CafeMom is already the largest social-networking/community site for moms AND the leading women's/parenting site on the internet - passing mainstream sites like ivillage, babycenter, and Marthastewart on the engagement metrics that matter most."
- This site is dedicated to women and moms specifically with a ton of different groups created by its 1.25 million members including "pregnancy, raising boys, recipe swap, photo moms, and marriage and relationships." Wikipedia

Care2
- http://www.care2.com
- "Our premise is simple: To help you make a difference. With more than 9 million members and 400 nonprofit partners, Care2 is the largest and most trusted information and action site for people who care to make a difference. Whether you’re passionate about green living, health & wellness, human rights or protecting the environment, Care2 puts the tools for change in your hands."
- This a large community of people that care about the environment, but it's more than just a community. You can donate to a good cause, sign a petition, send an e-card, receive tips on how to be green, and even get your own email account. Wikipedia

Classmates.com
- http://www.classmates.com
- "The company operates three international social networking services with a focus on reconnecting school acquaintances, including StayFriends in Germany (www.stayfriends.de), StayFriends in Sweden (www.stayfriends.se) and Trombi in France (www.trombi.com)."
- It's kind of obvious that this site's goal is to reconnect you with old classmates, but why don't they specifically have an about page that says this? The site must be doing something right as there are over 50 million members. The site does look to reacquaint you with old school mates, old college friends, workers from past jobs, and even people you met in the military. Wikipedia

deviantART
- http://www.deviantart.com
- "It is our intention to create the most powerful outlet in the world for known and unknown artists alike. Most importantly we intend to take our time to do it right. For the first time in history there is connection and communication between artists and fans on a massive scale. deviantART represents a breakthrough for the promotion and exposure of otherwise stranded artists in all corners of the globe. Our job is to make sense of the possibility, and craft it in a responsible manner."
- deviantART is basically a large community for artists. They can share their art no matter in what form it comes, with everyone. Although there is a free membership, you really will need to pay a membership fee to get anything out of it and with 8 million members, they are doing something right. Wikipedia

Facebook
- http://www.facebook.com
- "Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet."
- If you haven't heard of Facebook then you probably aren't on the internet very much. Facebook has become one of the largest social networks with over 100 million members and growing. Create a social profile, friend people, and join groups all while staying connected with those with whom you have lost contact. Wikipedia

Flixster
- http://www.flixster.com
- "Flixster is a community for movie fans of all shapes and sizes. Whether you are a die-hard horror fan or lover of romantic comedies (or both), Flixster is a place where you can find others who share your taste and through them discover new movies that you will love. About two and a half years old, Flixster is already one of the largest movie sites on the web with over 15 million unique visitors and almost 2 billion movie ratings."
- Flixster became the largest social network dedicated to movies, although some say it was with too "aggressive viral marketing." With applications on Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo, millions of people have been connecting with others over their movie interests. Wikipedia

Flickr
- http://www.flickr.com
- "Flickr - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world - has two main goals: 1. We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them. 2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos and video."
- Flickr allows everyone to upload their videos and photos online for others to see. You can search for photos on a certain topic or comment on others photos. It's much better than just uploading to a site that hosts it as with Flickr, there can be a lot more communication. Wikipedia

Fotolog
- http://www.fotolog.com
- "Fotolog is the world's leading photo-blogging site, one of the world's largest social networking sites and a global cultural phenomenon. More than 18 million members in over 200 countries use Fotolog as a simple and fun way to express themselves through online photo diaries or photo blogs. What makes Fotolog special is not just the ability to post photos, but the way it makes it easy to connect with others - whether staying in touch with friends and family, exploring the diverse Fotolog universe, discovering photos of new people from different cultures, participating in the site's fascinating special-interest communities or, perhaps most important, receiving personal feedback from around the world on your photos."
- Fotolog is the biggest photo blogging site online. For those interest in more than just blogging, than Fotolog would be a great place to look. This site has over 18 million users and most of them are outside of the United States. Unfortunately to get the most out of Fotolog, you have to pay for an account. Wikipedia

Friendster
- http://www.friendster.com
- "With more than 85 million members worldwide, Friendster is a leading global online social network. Friendster is focused on helping people stay in touch with friends and discover new people and things that are important to them. Online adults, 18 and up, choose Friendster to connect with friends, family, school, social groups, activities and interests."
- Another social network website that is popular outside of the United States. There are estimates that nearly 90% of the population of the Philippines have a Friendster account. It's also probably the only social networking site that owns a patent. Wikipedia

fubar
- http://www.fubar.com
- "fubar is the Internet's only online bar and happy hour where the party goes on 24/7! Think of it as a MySpace for grown-ups."
- fubar touts itself as the only online bar, but in reality it's just a way of meeting people online. To break the ice, you can buy them a drink, or check their salutes to see if they are who they say they are. If you are looking to pretend drink and meet people over 18, than join fubar. Wikipedia

Genealogy
- http://www.geni.com
- "Use Geni to: Build your family tree, Preserve your family history, Share family photos and videos, Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other events, Create profiles for your children, and Memorialize loved ones."
- If you interest in genealogy at all, than Geni.com is the site to go. You can create your own family tree, search of other family members, and connect with the other 15 million users. Wikipedia

hi5
- http://www.hi5.com
- "Launched in 2003, hi5 is now one of the world's largest social networks and a top 20 website globally — with 80+ million registered members in over 200 nations. hi5 Networks, Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California."
- Another social network created in the United States but more popular outside of it. In 2007 it was one of the top 25 visited sites. Wikipedia

imeem
- http://www.imeem.com
- "imeem is a social network that enables users to discover, interact and express themselves with media, including music, video and photos, and form connections based on shared tastes and interests."
- Sharing your play lists and music is easy with imeem. You can connect with those who share the same interest in music or find new friends who's interests are much different than yours. The imeem company was founded in 2004 and has some of the core engineers from Napster. Wikipedia

itsmy
- http://www.itsmy.com/itsmy/index.php
- "itsmy.com is the strongest community brand in mobile internet. It runs off-deck, operator independent with more than 2 million registered mobile users, 4.5 million mobile home- and content pages containing 10 million mobile UGC-items. Mobile 2.0 social networking services like free homepages, personal mobile TV broadcasting and location based services make itsmy.com the stickiest mobile community. itsmy.TV is the world leading mobile social TV service."
- You can send pics or videos through your phone, flirt, get mobile games, your own domain at you.itsmy.com, and connect with other people with your phone. Sounds like a cool idea but it seems that it would just be slutty girls sending scandalous pictures and horny young boys looking at them. Wikipedia

Last.fm
- http://www.last.fm
- "Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too."
- Every song you listen to will been seen by other people. This reminds me of the big thing that used to be on blogs years ago, where people would have it saying what song they were last listening too. This could be good for new bands to get their music out and with 20 million users, that is a lot of ears that could potentially listen to your music. Wikipedia

LibraryThing
- http://www.librarything.com
- "LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth."
- This is a much smaller social network, but this is one can potentially be one of the better ones. LibraryThing is for those who like to read books and find books that aren't possibly as main stream as the New York Times best seller list. Over 400 thousand users and over 20 million books, I'm sure you will at least find something remotely interesting to read. Wikipedia

LinkedIn
- http://www.linkedin.com
- "Find past and present colleagues and classmates quickly. LinkedIn makes staying in touch simple. Discover inside connections when you’re looking for a job or new business opportunity. Your network is full of industry experts willing to share advice. Have a question? Just ask."
- A professional networking website is probably the best one on here. Everyone is always trying to make connections to better their career and this site will make it easier. There are over 30 million users which will almost guarantee you will find somebody in your industry. Be weary though as a lot of people do things on the internet that aren't work appropriate. Wikipedia

LiveJournal
- http://www.livejournal.com
- "LiveJournal is a community publishing platform, willfully blurring the lines between blogging and social networking. Since 1999 LiveJournal has been home to a wide array of creative individuals looking to share common interests, meet new friends, and express themselves. LiveJournal encourages communal interaction and personal expression by offering a user-friendly interface and a deeply customizable journal. The service's individuality stems from the way highly dedicated users utilize our simple tools, along with the instinct for individual expression, to create new venues for online socializing."
- One of the first "blogging" sites, LiveJournal has been around a long time. When I started creating e/n sites, a lot of people created their sites on LiveJournal. The word journal or diary can be a scary word for men and this could explain the 4.4 million females and 2.2 males registered. Although there are 2 million people who hae unspecified their gender, I'm certain that not all of these are men. Wikipedia

Meetup
- http://www.meetup.com
- "Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities. Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference."
- If you ever been apart of a forum that tries to start an annual meet up you will know how hard it is. This site makes it easier to connect and get a meeting scheduled. There are over 4 million users in 2000 different cities, so you should be able to find somebody to meet up with. Wikipedia

MiGente.com
- http://www.migente.com
- "MiGente.com is your place to meet and connect with Latinos around the country. Chat or post photos and videos to share your experience. Look for other Hispanic Americans who are sharing theirs—even if you’re searching for news about what’s hot in Latin music, fashion, sports and events or looking for the buzz in business, politics and trends, we are the home for what is relevant to you and your community. This is the largest online community for Latinos, Latino Americans, Hispanics and Hispanic Americans—the entire Spanish-speaking family—to network, share an urban lifestyle, find romance, entertainment, and even jobs."
- MiGente.com is a social networking site aimed at the Latino's around the world. You could have some sort of Hispanic background or just love the culture, either way, MiGente.com's 2 million plus users will offer you something of interest. Wikipedia

MocoSpace
- http://www.mocospace.com
- "Find friends near you, Chat online or on your phone, Instant message, Share pics & videos."
- Another mobile social network that seems to attract young girls being slutty. You can chat, share images, and videos, but you can do that with your phone already. I guess you wouldn't have to give your phone number away, but it still seems sketch to me, but over 2 millions users can't be wrong. Wikipedia

Multiply
- http://multiply.com
- "Multiply gives you an easy way to share all kinds of digital media, including photos, blogs, videos, music and more, all in one convenient place: your own personal web site. With Multiply, you can share and discuss your stuff with everyone in your "social network," and also be alerted whenever they have something new."
- Multiply tries to be a little different than the other social networks by allowing users to securely share media files, but it's basically the same. Just like Facebook, it connects you with your friends friends and these people become your network. Multiply has over 10 millions users, but is banned in China. Wikipedia

MySpace
- http://www.myspace.com
- "MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends. Create a community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends! See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon.
MySpace is for everyone:
Friends who want to talk Online
Single people who want to meet other Singles
Matchmakers who want to connect their friends with other friends
Families who want to keep in touch--map your Family Tree
Business people and co-workers interested in networking
Classmates and study partners
Anyone looking for long lost friends!"

- The biggest and probably the best social network out there. Anyone from actors, to bands, to artists, to companies have MySpace pages. Even my mom had a MySpace page. Over 250 million users is what the site claims, allow I'm at least a million of those are for spam or completely unused. But basically if you don't have one, you should get one to network with 100's of millions of people. Wikipedia

myYearbook
- http://www.myyearbook.com
- "It all started during Spring Break 2005, flipping through a yearbook in my room and realizing it sucked. This is 2005 - why the hell is anyone buying yearbooks anymore? We wanted more than the typical stuff -- autographs, will, pictures -- although those had to be there too. What would make this site different -- and loved -- is it would be full of the people you know and meet in real life everyday. And it would go with you your whole life. It was real life on the Internet."
- A social network with the same idea, to connect old friends and school mates. Started by a couple of high schoolers and their older brother, myYearbook has grown to over 5 million users. Wikipedia

Ning
- http://www.ning.com
- "Ning offers the latest social networking features, all infinitely customizable to meet your unique needs. The Ning Platform makes this possible. As a platform, you don't have to appeal to Ning for the features you want. If you have the time and the inclination, you can build them yourself. It's the software equivalent of Home Depot. Unlike other services that offer a “one-size-fits-all” offering, your social network on Ning runs on a programmable platform."
- Kind of a cool idea, but basically a group on Facebook. I have yet to involved with Ning, so I can't really offer to much about Ning, but it was supposed to compete with Facebook and MySpace. I don't see how it can compete, but it could possibly contribute a little something extra. Wikipedia

orkut
- http://www.orkut.com
- "orkut is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. orkut's social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you've never met before. orkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old school mates or even exchange your favorite recipes. Who you interact with is entirely up to you. Before getting to know an orkut member, you can read their profile and even see how they're connected to you through the friends network."
- The orkut site was created in the United States and intended for here, but it has grown in popularity in other countries. It's the most visited site in Brazil, which is where it is now managed, and the second most visited in India. It's similar to other social networking sites but allows you to scrapbook. Wikipedia

PerfSpot
- http://www.perfspot.com
- "PerfSpot was created to provide the perfect web portal for people of any age, gender, or background to share their interests and favorite things on the web."
- Another social network that claims to be the best spot to share everything. When I went to the front page there was a group of photos of some college party, so it seems to be exactly like every other social network. Wikipedia

Plaxo
- http://www.plaxo.com
- "We started with a different kind of address book, one that leverages the power of the network effect to stay up-to-date. We securely host address books for more than 40 million people (and growing rapidly)."
- Sharing address books with that many people seems kinda weird, but it's another way to connect. Plaxo added something called Pulse that allows you to connect a lot of your other social media outlets including YouTube and Flickr. Wikipedia

Plurk
- http://www.plurk.com
- "Noun. plurk (plüer-kh) - A really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life in deliciously digestible chunks. Low in fat, 5 calories per serving, yet chock full of goodness. Verb. plurk (plüer-kh) - To chronicle the events of your always on, action-packed, storybook, semi-charmed kinda life."
- A micro-blogging service that allows you to connect with others by sending them little 140 character messages. I mean you don't want to bore people with too much information. Wikipedia

Pownce
- http://www.pownce.com
- "Pownce is a way to send stuff to your friends. What kind of stuff? You can send just about anything: music, photos, messages, links, events, and more. You can do it all on our web site, or install our lightweight desktop software that lets you get out of the browser."
- Another micro-blogging service but this one makes a little more sense. You can files and other things to your friends, not just a link or little message. Wikipedia

Reunion.com
- http://www.reunion.com
- "In the ever-evolving world of social networking, Reunion.com is the leading website for the grown-up social-network user to reconnect and keep in touch with family, friends, lost loves, and colleagues as life changes. With more than 50 million registered users and membership increasing on average by 1 million per month, Reunion.com offers the fastest and most comprehensive way to rediscover and stay connected with people from your past."
- Fifty million users is a lot of users, but Reunion.com isn't free. You can join for free but are unable to very much without paying for the premium access. I guess if you can't find lost family members or friends on any other free site, you might be able to find them here. Wikipedia

Skyrock
- http://skyrock.com
- "With a Skyrock account, you can: Stock unlimited photos, videos, and texts in your blog! Make new friends and chat with peeps from around the world! Check out tons of photos, videos, and profiles, from the humdrum to the unhinged..."
- Another way to find new friends and share everything about your life including photos, videos, and a blog. There are over 20 million users of Skyrock. Wikipedia

Tagged
- http://www.tagged.com
- "Tagged helps people keep in touch with their friends and make new ones. We provide a fun media experience featuring expressive custom profiles, fluid widget embedding, integrated video, chat, and much more."
- Over 70 million members are allowed to connect with other through many different options. Another social network that was started by Harvard students. Wikipedia

Twitter
- http://www.twitter.com
- "Twitter is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006, Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends."
- Twitter has become probably the most popular micro-blogging site. It is geared more towards just keeping friends updated with what you are doing throughout the day with small messages. You can receive updates many different ways and there are over 60 tools that have been created to try and make Twitter more efficient and possibly more annoying. Wikipedia

WAYN
- http://www.wayn.com
- "WAYN is the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community website in the UK. WAYN is present in 193 countries and membership has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 13 million today. WAYN helps you to keep track of all your contacts from around the world and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been and where you are going!"
- WAYN or Where Are You Now is a social network designed to connect people from around the world. If you like to travel, you can learn about hot spots, restaurants, and clubs in another country that you would like to vist. Wikipedia

Windows Live Spaces
- http://home.services.spaces.live.com
- "Windows Live Spaces is your place on the Web to share your thoughts, photographs, and interests with others. Whether you want to meet like-minded people, write a blog about your favorite music, or simply share your photos with friends and family, the tools you need are here."
- Microsoft's blogging and social network site that has over 100 millions users. You can blog, share photos, keep a guestbook, and keep an internet profile. Wikipedia
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Friday, October 24, 2008

Link Baiting!

My goal for this blog was for it to be considered more of a magazine than just a blog. I eventually want to hire people to write columns on certain parts of blogging. As of right now it is just me posting and so I will try to cover every angle at some point.

I have been working on a post about social networks all day, but for some reason blogger hiccuped and lost half of it. Hopefully I will have the post up tomorrow. Until then, read this article from SmashingMagazine.com titled Golden Rules of Linkbaiting.

It's a very in depth article that will probably be able to answer any question about link baiting. These are the articles I would like to write for this site. The posts I have written are not that in depth, but this will soon change.
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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Social Media Sniping - The What And How

Social media sniping, or SMS (not Short Message Service - SMS), is basically searching for articles or blog posts that are starting to gain a lot of exposure and posting a comment on that site. Now this can get out of hand and look like spamming, so you don't want to do this all the time or with every article.

If you are going to snipe a post and write a comment, make sure you read the article and give something worthwhile. Don't just comment...
Cool post.

or...
I enjoyed reading this.


Your comment will actually need to answer a question of the article or another commenter or maybe even ask a question relevant to it. If you do leave a post, don't disregard this site altogether. Come back to see if anyone has either answer your question or maybe even posed another one. This will make your comment look even less like comment spam. It will also help if it's a post or article relating to your niche. Not only will this help with your credibility and expertise, but you will be connecting with even more people interested in the same things you are.

This idea isn't a new thing. A friend of mine bought a lot of stuff on eBay and always talked about snipe bidding when there are just a few seconds left. Tyler over at SMM Guru talked about Digg sniping, but I feel you can do this with just about any social media site.

So try it out and see if any traffic is brought to your site. If after a few SMS attempts
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Your Posts (Should) = A $50 Ribeye Steak

The waitress brings you that juicy ribeye you ordered. It's sizzling in her hands as she sets in front of you. Your mouth starts to water and you grab your steak knife and fork and can't wait to dig in.

WAIT!!

Don't just start carving at the meat in front you. You should use all your senses to get the full picture. You've got to hear it, smell it, see it, and then cut into it to feel and taste it. This is a $50 steak, you can't scarf it down like a small cheeseburger at McDonald's. You are going to eat it slow, chewing it many times and savoring every bite. No steak sauce, just some salt and pepper. A $50 will be ruined by steak sauce.

Now how does this equate to your posts?
Basically, don't feverishly type up your post. Take your time on it. If you were to just write something without thinking it over and formatting it perfectly, than it's just going to be a wasted topic. You want your posts to read and feel like a $50 steak tastes.

Make sure you have a good topic.
All great steaks start with a great piece of beef. You should take this into consideration when you are posting about a topic. Will this topic be something that your readers want to read about? Will they want to tell their friends? If the answers are no to either or both of those questions, rethink the topic. When you eat a great steak, you want to tell everyone about how good it is and that they should really try out that restaurant. Your post should do the same.

Your post should be formatted for the readers.
When you order a steak at a steakhouse, you can order it from rare to well done. Your steak will then go on the grill with few seasonings. Your posts should be formatted in the same way. Simple and clear and concise. But, this depends on your topic and niche. For the most part, readers won't read everything you write, but will look for bulleted lists or bold headings.

Lastly, don't gussy up your posts with too much of anything.
If you order a good expensive steak at a popular steakhouse, the steak should be the center piece of the dish. Maybe some veggies, a biscuit, or some potatoes, but the steak will be the reason you ordered it. No crazy seasonings or cheap steak sauces. You are after the big hunk of charred meat.

This goes with your posts. Your reader isn't there for all the pictures and fancy things that some people put in their posts. I feel that if you are going to add a picture, it should at least have something to do with the post. Some people will just post a picture to post one. These will just take away from the real message in your writing.

Another thing that can take away from your post is all the social media web 2.0 buttons at the bottom. Not everything you will write will be diggable. The best thing I've seen is the "share this" links that kind of pop up so you can bookmark or add the post to your favorite social site. Stick with that and get rid of all the buttons.

Think of your post as a $50 steak. Are you really going to want cooked broccoli, onion rings, sauteed mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes, buttered bread, french fries, creamed spinach, and a salad with it? No, keep your posts simple and only add things that are necessary.
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

10 Essential Free Directories To Submit Your Blog To

Finding traffic for your blog in the beginning can be hard. There are many great ways to find that traffic and direct towards your blog, but I'm going to talk about one today. Blog directories are basically a list of blogs categorized by their topic. Here is a list of 10 blog directories that don't cost you a penny to join.

  • Blog Catalog's Directory is one of the best to join. It's one of the larger blog directories on the net and is also one of the larger social networks. They have a few widgets that will directly connect you to your readers. This one is a must join.

  • Blogged's Directory is another large blog directory that you should join.

  • Blog Flux's Blog Directory is another one that I joined, but their directory could fix some layout problems. It was also hard for me to find a category for mine.

  • Blog Hop has me still in review, but it's another one that tote's connecting readers to blogs.

  • Blog Explosion also has my blog still in review, but they will be a great source of traffic.

  • Bloggernity is a great directory that added my blog quickly. I have to receive any traffic from them but it's at the top of the list for new blogs.

  • Top Blog Area is another great free directory which added my site quickly, but I have yet to see any traffic from them.

  • Blog Hub is another free directory.

  • Blog Rankings makes it hard to stand out, but it's another free directory.

  • Bloggapedia's Blog Directory is a free directory and social network like Blog Catalog.
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Monday, October 20, 2008

Driving And The Bathroom, What Do They Have In Common?

Everyone has a place where they go to think about things. Those things can be everything from relationships to jobs or what to post about on your blog. These places are different for a lot of people, but can also be the same. I'm going to talk about a few of the places I go to think and get away from the world.

If I am annoyed or pissed off about something I generally will get in my car and drive around. Most of the time it isn't normal driving as I usually have my foot to the floor and mashing through the gears. The rush of adrenaline as I swing around corners and bring the car into triple digits relaxes me. My thoughts are clear and I'm able to cut through them like a samurai.

The other place I do a lot of thinking is in the bathroom. This can be either on the toilet or in the shower. Everything else in the world matters very little and I can concentrate on my thoughts. Generally bathroom tasks take no brain power as we have all done them thousands of times.

The reason I bring these things up is that they can help you if you just can't come up with something to post. I posted about some ways to get around writers block yesterday but getting away to that certain place that allows you to think freely can help a ton.

Where do you go to get away from the world and think?
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Saturday, October 18, 2008

What To Do When You Have Nothing To Post?

You are staring at the computer screen with your hands on the keyboard motionless. Your brain is coming up with nothing for your next blog post. It's only been a couple of months, you can't be out of topics yet. You decide to not post anything that day, but tomorrow comes and your mind is still blank. What happens now once you have nothing to post?


Image courtesy of Adam Lyon


This is a common problem for many writers not just bloggers. So if you find that posting something on a regular schedule, here are a few remedies that will hopefully help smash through that writers block.

Get out of your current surroundings.
Take a walk or go to the store. Just getting out of your house, or wherever you blog should get your mind off of the need to blog and get your brain out of a rut. I did this back in high school and college when I was writing essays. I would work on it for a little bit but would start to despise the topic I was writing on. When I put it down and got my mind off it, I was able to come back and write with a new sense and a fresh mind.

Talk to friends, family members, or members of your internet community.
Maybe someone has heard of something new about your topic that you haven't. Or if you have something you want to write about but just can't think of which direction to take it, just ask someone. Forums are a great place for this especially if you have decent presence there. Generally are more than willing to help especially if they know something about whatever you are writing about.

Research.
If you aren't researching your posts already than you should start. Sometimes doing a bit of extra research about the topic to hopefully find some untapped bit of information that will give you that extra push over the hill. This can be surfing the internet for more sources or opinions about the topic or going to the library and looking up books and older information to write about. Make sure you keep track of the sources as you don't want to plagiarize.

Revisit older posts and update them.
When you generally post something it won't be the last time you talk about that topic. Just going through your old posts and adding extra bits of information will improve your blog. Not only will it move older posts back up to the front page of your blog, but it will keep your blog updated with the most relevant information. It will also interconnect your blog posts with links to other posts you have done, which is something that is good to do (as it keeps your readers within your site as long as possible).

The best thing to remember is that it happens to everyone at some point. It's just something that you have to try and push through. Just as I'm about to post this, I whipped over to ProBlogger and searched to see if Darren had written about this subject. He had not only written about it, but quite possibly wrote a small book about the subject. Check out his article written about battling bloggers block.
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Friday, October 17, 2008

What Does My Failed Job Interview Help You With Blogging?

Shaky hands and sweaty palms. These are generally what happens when anyone goes to interview for a new job. My palms are usually sweaty so my face starts to sweat when I sit in front of the people that are asking me questions about my character and past work experience. The hands are usually a little bit shaky so my voice quivers a bit. Public speaking is one of the things most people are scared of.

I am usually semi-comfortable talking in front of people, but as I sat there looking at the sheet of questions they were going to ask me I knew that I was not qualified for this job. The job was for a manager of the entire maintenance crew. The people I would have been supervising were skilled and well trained in their fields; waste water maintenance, construction, and vehicle mechanics. I only have a small amount of experience in repairing vehicles and it's generally what I know about my old 5th generation Prelude and my current Dodge Neon, nothing else. The questions I was asked were about supervising people in a large production company and planning construction projects, things I have not done.

So why am I telling you this? Well first of all I told my girlfriend I wasn't qualified for this position (but that's a different story =P ) and was most likely wasting the time of the interviewers. And second of all, you can learn from my mistakes and ------ to your next blog post.

Know what you are writing/talking about
I was unsure of what exactly this job entailed but don't make that mistake with your posts. Do a little research about what you are going to post. Read what other people have posted on the subject and try to become an expert on it for that post.

Blend in personal experiences
If you have any personal experiences that relate to your post than make sure to talk about it. This gives your blog a better voice and allows your readers to connect with you more.

Learn from your mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes, both in life and on the internet. Make sure you learn from them and don't make them again. This is big one for life in general not just blogging.
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Social Media Is Very Important, But Why?

Whenever you are starting something new like a business or a blog, networking is one of the most important things you can do to get customers or readers. With the Web 2.0 there is an easier way to do this and it's called Social Media.

Networking is important because it gets your name and your business or blog out there into the public. Ultimately the public is who you are looking to connect with anyways, and social media sites make it incredibly easy.

If there is something that is of interest to you, than there is most likely a social media site that will allow you to friend others that are interested in it too. Tyler at SMM Guru wrote a post last month entitled Top 198 Social Media Sites By Niche. It's an amazing list that has topics ranging from sports to health to pets and tons of other topics.

These social media sites will allow you to connect with other people with the same interests as you and also get your "brand" noticed. Your visitors will be able to connect directly with you. I'm currently in the process of joining a bunch of them and so you will be able to connect with me through them.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Definitions About The Blogging Community

Blogging is a wonderful community with millions of members all over the world. If you aren't part of the community yet or are just getting started, you might be hearing a bunch of words that you may not understand. Here is a short list as this will be updated with more words and links to specific sites.
  • Weblog - A site maintained, usually by an individual, that is updated regularly with comments on many different topics.

  • Blog - Shortened version of weblog.

  • Blogosphere - The community of bloggers.

  • Blogging - The act of writing posts; to blog.

  • Post - An entry on a blog.

  • Bloggeries - The posts contained on a blog.

  • Blogger - Someone who runs and writes on a blog.

  • Photolog - A blog with photos taken by the blogger.

  • Vlogging - Instead of posts that are written, the vlogger will record a video of them talking and post it to their blog.

  • SEO - Search engine optimization is basically things done to a site to improve search engine rankings

  • SMM - Social media marketing; marketing towards the social media channels.

  • Microblogging - Another form of blogging that is generally short, text message like entries that is available for others to see.
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9 Simple Ways To Increase Traffic

  • Write comments on blogs in your niche. Make them relevant, don't just spam. Most blogs will allow you to link your site but other readers will frown upon useless comments.

  • Join forums in and not in your niche.. If your signature has your site linked, it will be in every post you have posted in the past and in the future.

  • Send out a press release via Free Press Release or PRFree.com about your blog.

  • Join every social network and add a link to your blog; Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.

  • Add well written articles or bloggeries to social media sites like Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.

  • Become friends with other bloggers in your niche. This could lead to guest blogging opportunities and link exchanges.

  • Add your blog to a blog directory. Here is a list of top directories to submit it to. Some of them are free and some aren't.

  • Write articles and submit them to online article sites like Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, and Go Articles with a link to your site.

  • The best thing you can do is write great content that connects with your readers. This will keep the coming back and linking to your site in the future.
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Monday, October 13, 2008

Blogging 101 - Driving Traffic To Your Blog

Now that you have written a few quality posts, it’s time to get some people to read your blog. There are many different things you can do to get people to your blog, but I will start with some of the easiest. If you have a Facebook or Myspace account, put a link to your site and send a quick message to all your friends and ask them to check out your site. Make sure to ask for some feedback as it will help in perfecting your blog.

The next thing is to add a signature to your email account. The signature will be added to the bottom of every email you send out. Make sure to include the title and a description of your blog. Now when you send an email to anyone there will be a link to your site.

Forums are another great way to get your site noticed. Forums are basically large communities of people that are all interested in a specific thing. Whatever your topic is, there will be a forum about it. So search Google for forums about your topic if you don’t know of any and make sure to make an account. Then just like your email create a signature with your blog’s URL and this will be seen after every thing you write on the forum. If the forum is large enough and you actually write meaningful things then you can receive a considerable amount of traffic from them. Make sure that you aren’t spamming the site as your blog will become your brand and you don’t want it to be associated with spam.

There are obviously many more ways to drive traffic to your blog and tomorrow I will post a long list with examples. Everything on the list tomorrow won’t cost you a dime, just a little bit of your time, but there are things you can pay for that might be more beneficial. I will go over them in a separate list as generally beginning bloggers won’t be able to afford them.
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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Blogging 101 – The Content Is Key, But Not Everything.

Popular blogs all have great posts which offer something to the readers. It doesn’t matter what you are writing about. The posts need to be about your topic. This could be some exciting news or just something interesting you saw on the internet. Your readers will come back to read your content. Now having something for the reader to read is good, but writing a post just to have something new will just push them away. Filler posts, or posts that have no information that contributes to your blog, are unnecessary and most readers won’t read them.

Other than having great content for your blog, having good writing skills will make the posts more enjoyable for the readers. If you are writing like the young 12 year olds on chat rooms then you probably shouldn’t have a blog. Nobody wants to read something they can’t comprehend. Make sure to run spell check and proof read your posts. Remember these will be posted for millions of people to see and you don’t want to come off as someone who dropped out of high school. Your posts are almost like the essays you wrote back in high school and should be treated like them.

Proof reading and spell check will help you catch a lot of the errors in your writing, but there are some other things you can do to make it even better. If you treat your posts like essays then you should do research on what you are writing about. This will give you more insight and convey to your readers that you aren’t feeding them bull. The research should also be cited and reference in your posts, just like essays. Plagiarism is bad, especially on the internet where anonymity is possible. Now that you have started writing good content, the next step is to get readers to your blog.
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Friday, October 10, 2008

Blogging 101 – Your Topic Is Interesting And Unique, Now What?

Once you have decided on a topic, the goal is to find some place to host it. I suggest starting your site at a free blog host like Blogger or Wordpress. Not only are they very reliable but they offer a ton of tools to help get your blog started. This will be the best way for you to work on building the content of your site. Once your site becomes popular or you feel like you can afford it, go ahead and buy a domain name and pay for hosting. Until then build your readership, as they will follow you when you move.

Personally I recommend Blogger. I have used them for years and they offer almost complete customization. At Blogger, you can use their themes, change the colors, change the fonts, and add as many widgets and applications you want. Once again, this will make it very easy for you to focus on your content. After you have started your blog it is time to configure it the way you like by changing the colors and fonts. If you feel like being a little bit different, search for blogger themes and you will be able to download it and then upload it to your site. This will help your blog stand out just a little bit more. Blogger also allows you to modify the HTML for free, something Wordpress doesn’t, so you can further design your blog to stand out. Now that your blog is online and designed the way you want, it is time to start writing posts.
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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Blogging 101 - So You Want To Blog?

The word blog is an interesting one. Shortened from weblog, the blog has become a world phenomenon. There are blogs in many different languages and many different countries. Anyone from the average guy down the street to your favorite celebrity has a blog. From personal to business and anything in between is fair game for a blog. The blog can be a powerful thing and reach hundreds of thousands of people everyday.

So you have decided to join the millions of people around the world that are blogging. The first thing you need to do is to decide what kind of blog this will be. Arguably, the most common blogs are personal ones. Business blogs are generally run by companies that focus on their specific company and the news that associates with it. So unless this will be about your business, your blog will most likely be personal. The next step is to choose a topic. The topic for your blog can be just about anything…
  • News

  • Sports

  • Games

  • Technology

  • Science

  • Everyday life

Those are just a few general subjects which have many topics included in each of them. The goal is to write about what you are interested in. It will be hard to sustain a blog if the focus of it isn’t something you are passionate about. When thinking of a topic, keep it less general than sports or news. Pick a field in one of those broader subjects like football or politics. Search around the internet for blogs about the topic you chose and keep track of how many there are. Take a look at how long they have been around, the numbers posts and the quality of them, and how many comments they get on them.

Knowing your “competition” will help your blog eventually surpass them. I use the term competition loosely as hopefully you will become allies, but they are competing in your topic field for visitors and readers. If you feel that your topic is just too saturated with blogs, don’t be discouraged. Most likely you will still be able start a successful blog, it will just have to be that much better. Later on in this series I will be giving tips on how to do this.
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

About Me / Contact Me

My name is Steven but everyone seems to call me Boss. I'm 23 years old and live in the rainiest place in the continental United States. I have been running websites for the better part of a decade. They started with mp3 sites and moved to Simpsons sites. After a few semi popular Simpsons sites I moved to a personal blog during high school.

The blog wasn't just personal, but more of an e/n site. For those who don't know, e/n stood for everything/nothing. Basically it was a personal blog with random funny posts intertwined. I was part of a small group that had a few popular sites and mine was called The Shiznit. I recently tried to start it up again but have neglected the last few weeks.

If you need to contact me, my email is armsteas [at] gmail [dot] com. I will respond as quickly as I can.
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Sunday, October 5, 2008

Welcome To Everything Blog Magazine

Welcome, this is Everything Blog Magazine. This is an online magazine about blogging. Basically anything and everything that has to do with blogging. How to start blogging, how to post, what to post, how to promote your blog, monetizing your blog, and anything else that pertains to the online community of bloggers.

I'm working on designing and articles, so bear with me.
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