What is the Blogosphere Saying?

[Week Beginning 25th October 2009]
Over the course of the week, I have stumbled across many amazing blog posts and I have decided to share some of them with you.
In fact, all of these posts have being of great value, source of encouragement and reminders.

(1) Is your blog presentable and friendly?
Post by: Robert Bravery
Twitter: @robertbravery
View Post

(2) 7 Ways To Speed Up Your Blog
Post by: David Shaw
Twitter: @davidshawblog
View Post

(3) Advanced Blog Commenting Tricks
Post by: Zemalf
Twitter: @zemalf
View Post

(4) 10 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY
Post by: David Cantone
Twitter: @davidantone
View Post

(5) The Secret To Huge Volumes of Content For Any Blogger
Post by: David Risley
Twitter: @davidrisley
View Post

Blog Today, Gone Tomorrow

I saw on one of those breakfast TV shows, a teenager called Dion introduced as Amy Winehouse’s god daughter and described as a new singing artist.

Unlike the music industry where hanging with the stars and being signed on their label could improve your record sales no end – not so in the blogging world.

Hanging out with A-list bloggers, piggy backing on the hit blogs doesn’t guarantee you traffic to your website/blog.

From my observations, you have to do the donkey work yourself – you’ve got to deliver the goods. Catchy titles, short, snappy and tangible content as well as consistently updating the site are top tips for getting repeat visits and unique visitors.

There’s nothing more irritating than searching for a blog or following a link to a blog only to discover the latest content was posted months or weeks ago. Or to realise the content is boring, regurgitated – and a pure waste of web surfing time.

Music artists come and go, one hit wonders, here today, gone tomorrow. The blogosphere is rife with dormant blogs (sometimes I wish there was a thorough clean up)

Hang out with the blogging superstars as much as you like, but remember there’s no guarantee the star dust will rub off on you.
Keep your blog alive, keep it real and keep it fresh.

New eBook Survey

An open secret…
I am about to let you in on a little secret, an amazing free ebook with blogging tips, and suggestions is forthcoming.

I’ve been working on it for a while, and thought it best to get your thoughts in.
So here’s your chance to contribute to it by responding to 7 questions.

Remember when you first started blogging, imagine if you had access to something that’ll walk you through developing a successful blog.
That’s what this e-book can be, with your help that is. It has the potential to benefit the thousands of new blog owners. And you can help ease them into the blogging scene

Also, feel free to leave additional suggestions and recommendations.
This survey has been complied using surveygizmo. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to develop a high quality survey campaign.
[Disclosure: I will earn a small commission if you choose to open a SurveyGizmo account through this link]

Where Do Your Potential Readers Hang Out?

Are you an internet business owner?
A hobby blogger?
or perhaps running an offline business?
There’s always a time when you search for new customers, clients or readers to add to your existing list.
So the question here is, where are they hanging out?

In a case of an online business, the answer to this may seem obvious – Forums, social networks, blogs and so on.
But are we effectively utilizing these avenues?

Let’s take social media for an example, an area that is becoming a dominant force within new media – with the likes of
Facebook, Friendfeed, identi.ca, LinkedIn, Mr Wong, OverBlog, Stumbleupon, Squidoo -

For bloggers, this is great – an opportunity to interact and share interests with like minded individuals – couldn’t be better.
Chances are, such relationship formed outside your business results into potential customers, blog readers, contributors and so on.
But, is our conversion rate effective?
Simply creating a facebook page or a forum account isn’t enough – you have to work it.

Speak their language

With each of these platforms, it is important to treat each one independently.
For an example, I wouldn’t build an effective relationship on Facebook if all I did was to post my latest blog feeds there – hoping someone would read them.

Each platform has it’s own culture and communication style.
If social media is something we are incorporating as part of our business then it’s worth doing it correctly.

Social Tools for your Blog

The beauty of these social engagements is the ability to bring them back to your blog.
There are some clever social blog tools which you may wish to integrate, to help streamline the communication process.

Facebook Connect
Facebook Fan page
Twitter
Flickr
Stumble

Have you discovered your readers hang out spot?
What social tools are working for you?

Did Blog World Leave You Behind?

Are you one of the few who couldn’t make it to Blog World Expo?
With many weeks of build-up and great anticipation – do you feel the party train has finally left you behind?
Well, you are not alone, so let me keep you company.

What is Blog World?

Blog World Expo is a high profile blogging and new media conference. A platform where you’ll find bloggers, Marketers and producer of new media all gathered under one roof. This year would be its 3rd annual conference.
If you are a business owner, love networking and meeting new potential customers, then this is the place for you.
The conference has a line up of top A-List bloggers, speakers and innovators in the game.
No wonder majority of bloggers are heading down to Vagas.

Tools to join the fun

Being thousands of miles away shouldn’t stop you from joining in the fun – although, nothing quite beats the real thing.
That said, you can get your updates from the following tools:
Twitter
It is quite amazing to see how valuable Twitter is becoming, on any subject matter.
Simply search for the keyword #BWE09, to see what guys at the conference are saying or you could follow @blogworld
If like me, you are religious TweetDeck user, simply create a search group titled #BWE09 for latest updates.
USTREAM
If you require a bit more than 140 characters, you can catch some unofficial footage on Ustream.
Anything Else?
umm…well, since a high number of bloggers are off the airspace, you could take advantage of their absence.

Any suggestions?

Blogging is Fun!

I have had an exciting time this week networking, making friends with new bloggers from all around – sharing blogging ideas and tools.
With yourblogtools.com up and running, I decided it was time to shift focus and concentrate on relationship building – and it has been fun.
As a result of this move, I noticed three changes on this blog:

1. An increase in traffic.
2. A significant increase to my subscriber list.
3. An increased activity in my post comments and discussions.

To celebrate this excitement, I have put together a short video post which also happens to be my first