Successful Blog

Open Comments at 6:30 Chicago Time

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Tuesday Open Comment Night

Personal Branding logo

YES, the mike will be open again tonight. So start collecting your thoughts. Remember, you get to bring what you want to talk about.

The rules are simple — be nice.

We got things going really fast last week. If you missed it, stop by this week, and check it out.

Some things we might talk about could include whether:

  • Joe’s great interviewing skills.
  • What happened on the Dr. Who finale?
  • What are the donkey and the moose up to?
  • What’s the secret trip Liz is taking?
  • What’s the contest at Ben’s Blog about?
  • What you SUGGEST:

AND THE EVER POPULAR, WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Mike Is in Chicago!

17% of Everyone’s Time — 18-50++ Got Model?

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Not Just a Survey

When Ball State University Center for Media Design did a new study on how we use media, they didn’t want to take a survey. Surveys have that problem of people self-reporting their behavior — sometimes folks aren’t, well, accurate. Hoping to avoid that issue the Center for Media Design took a slightly different approach. They followed subjects for an entire day to observe behaviors as they happened.

In his BusinessWeek|online article “How We Use the Web Today,” Carlos Bergfeld reports on the study.

The study, they say, gives one of the clearest glimpses of the Internet’s media influence, especially during the working day. More than 60% of participants use the Web during the day, vs. 40% for newspapers, and about 30% for magazines, according to the study, commissioned by the Online Publishers Assn., of which BusinessWeek.com is a member. And at work, the Web dominates media consumption, the researchers say.

People are spending a lot more time during the day on the Web, too — on average about 120 minutes. That’s less than they listen to the radio, but much longer than the roughly half hour they read newspapers or magazines. (TV is still the media king, gobbling more than 240 minutes of a viewer’s day.) A decade ago, people were spending less than an hour on the Web, the study says.

Two important facts that came out of the study were that [Read more…]

Great Finds: Over 875 Free WordPress Themes

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WooHoo!!! All in One Place

Just updated on May 31st — Believe me, there are WAY more WordPress themes and variations here than the title of the post says.

Great Find: Comprehensive list of 875+ Free WordPress 1.5 and 2.0 Themes / Templates available for download
Type of Article: Resource of link throughs to WordPress templates
Permalink: http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/comprehensive-list-of-615-free-wordpress-15-and-20-themes-templates-available-for-download-266.htm
Target Audience: Every WordPress user

Content: Emily Robbins at How to Blog did the work. It shows. Emily not only made the list, she gives the details. She tells you which templates require word 2.0, which offer 3 columns, and which include WordPress widgets support. She even makes notes on specific themes, such as those that are appropriate for photobloggers. This list might not be as pretty as the WordPress Theme Viewer, but I don’t think there is a more useful list available anywhere. To find the list click the title below.

610 comprehensive list of 685 WordPress Themes

Ready to brand your blog or your business properly? Try new WordPress Theme that says what you stand for.

Congratulations and thank you, Emily. Give this woman links and links. She’s earned them.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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The Ultimate Blog Directory Handbook: Over 1800+ Submission Sites
Great Finds: EchoEcho on and on and on
Great Find: Easy File Backups

Net Neutrality 6-13-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Out Of Control!

The discussion, debate, battle, whatever, over Net Neutrality is completely out of control! And those who favor anti-Net Neutrality (yeah, figure that out) still haven’t answered the question – Where’s the $200 BILLION??? Or – why aren’t 86 million households which should have been rewired by 2006 with a fiber optic wire, capable of 45 Mbps, in both directions, wired that way now??? Which leads to – what did the Telco’s do with that money??? And follows with – why won’t anyone open up about it?

Net neutrality

Nothwithstanding all of the above, net neutrality legislation is not the answer – it is more like ‘casting out a devil with the devil’. There is no fundamental understanding of the internet as a space, marketplace, world or a frontier (for more on this see Doc Searls’ article on Saving the Net). The debate should not be about the internet as a sum of pipelines and wires and content and packets delivered across an infrastructure. It should be in terms of protecting the space in which the individual has been empowered and the emergent benefits of interactions among those individuals that are having an increasingly sociall impact.

Net neutrality debate to carry on

Alan Davidson, Washington counsel for Google, said that the House vote should be taken as “a wake-up call” by the public and businesses about how the internet could be regulated in the future. “As more consumers and small businesses learn about this, I think we’ll see more concern,” he said.

Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for Yonkers, N.Y.-based Consumers Union, said that the “grass-roots campaign is only gaining steam” and that the telecommunications and cable companies still have a fight on their hands.

“I think that in the Senate there is a better understanding of the idea of net neutrality,” although many members are still on the fence on the issue, she said.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

SOB in Giant Online Blogging Glossary

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Synchronicity Again

Truth is I had just cropped this title

for a “Great Find” post, when I got an email that said:

Hi Liz,
I recently created a Giant Blogging Terms Glossary at
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2006/06/the-giant-blogging-terms-glossary/

And while I searched around for blogging terms, I was surprised to
find SOB on several sites and it is a very popular term (and the
entire credit is yours). So I have added SOB to my glossary
collection. I found some great sites at your blog. Thanks.

🙂

PC

Here’s the entry itself. Click the entry shot to see the entire glossary.

Quick Online Terms Glossary-SOB

The Blogging Glossary a great idea and the blog itself, Quick Online Tips is a wealth of resources for bloggers at all levels. Stop by there and check it out. I’m adding this post to the NEW BLOGGER PAGE.

New Blogger Logo

Thanks, PC, for noticing!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NEW BLOGGER PAGE

The Ultimate Blog Directory Handbook: Over 1800+ Submission Sites

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The Ultimate Lists as of June 2006

New Blogger Logo

Every few months someone compiles a new list of blog directories for submission. I thought it might be nice to pull them together with a basic how-to piece on using directorires best to promote your brand and your blog. With that in mind, I’m reposting I piece I wrote and combining the several directory lists I’ve been able to gather into one Directory Submission Handbook. This will have it’s own page in the sidebar for easy access whenever you need it. It will be called the 1800+ Directory Lisitings page.

Directory Listings as Blog Promotion

The blog looks great. You’ve been through the Blog Review Checklist. You’ve got several posts with great titles and compelling content–to let readers know you’ll be around, when they come back. Now it’s time to let people know that you exist.

List your blog in the Blog Directories. Which ones? All of them–every one that you can find the smallest reason to. Listing is a slightly longer and more involved task than changing phone companies. However if you take the time, your work will last for the life of your blog.

Prepare a document with the following information before you start. Keep this document. It’s your blog’s biography. You’ll have reason to use it as your blog makes friends and influences people.

Your username. Pick one with no spaces. Many directories and forums require that, and no one needs too many usernames.

Your email address This email address will get directory updates and be used for verifications. You may want it separate from your personal email address. You’ll need a system to keep track of directory correspondence. Much of the login/password email that you want to keep will have subject lines that start with blog-something.

Your password I’m sure you know the cautions and rules about passwords.

The name of your blog Be sure that you have the spelling, spacing, and everything about the name exactly as you want it. Some directories make it difficult to go back to change it later.

The URL This is http:// (nameofmyblog) .com

The feed Some directories will ask for your RSS or XML feed. You should be able to find that address within your blogware documentation. It will look like your URL with an extension.

The description Though you’re probably anxious to get done, don’t hurry through this one. This is your advertising, and it will be out there a long time. Again, in some places you may not be able to change it later. Make two versions one under 150 words and one under 300 words. Some directories have stricter length limits.

Keywords Choose keywords that readers would use to look for a blog like yours. Review them to make certain that they’re not so broad that they apply to every blog, or so narrow that only you would know them.

Then start with one of the lists below. Approach the task as suits your nature. I did a few every day until I was done. That way I could work on writing and do things on other parts of my blog too.

Words of Caution

You don’t need to be in every list and you don’t need to carry ever link on your blog. So take a look around before you submit. Will someone new there ever be able to find your blog in the crowd? Will you? I’ve gone back to directories and not been able to find my own blog even though I knew it was there!

Certainly you the more “phone books” you are in the more chances that people will find you. But if the phone is poorly organized or shoved off in a drawer the chance that particular phone book will help is fairly slim for you.

On to the Directory Lists

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There are some duplicates in these lists. Not nearly so many as you might expect. I quite counting how many links to directories were here when I reached 1800.
Google’s Blog Directory List

Robin Good’s RSS Top55 – Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

Free Web Directory List from Smiley Cat

Top Rank Monster RSS and Blog Directory List

Other Directory Lists

These Lists from The V7 Network
Nine lists here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Other posts to check out:
Directories and Click Exchanges as Promotion
Blogger Forums as Promotion
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