Successful Blog

Spring Cleaning Your Blog

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Spring Comes Twice a Year

I highlighted this post last October, when it was spring in Australia. Still, I think the information is worth bringing forward now that it’s spring in North America. It’s an article by Duncan Riley from the Blog Herald called, Quick spring cleaning tips for your blog. Here’s what I take from Duncan’s article and pass on to you.

    1. A splash of paint–Add some new color or something colorful. Curb appeal is great promotion for your blog, your business, and your brand.

    2. New header–If you haven’t noticed, new headers are sprouting like spring flowers.

    3. Clean up your links–Sad to say some of those folks on your blogroll may no longer be blogging.

    4. Edit old posts–Update old posts and add references so folks will go read them.

    5. Take a walk around the blogs. Spring walks are always invigorating and inspiring.

Duncan also suggests signing up for an affliliate program. I don’t see any reason not to . . . It just didn’t feel very springy to me. 🙂

Got any to add to my list, since I already have the mop and bucket out?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Link Love Raises Your Property Value

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Springtime Link Love

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It’s spring and a young person’s fancy turns to thoughts of . . . blogging. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? The blogging version of spring would have to be link love. Ah link love . . . that warm, sweet connected feeling that you get when you click back to Technorati and see that incoming link that means someone loves YOU.

Well, wait a minute. For link love to be coming in, someone had to be sending it out. What is the advantage in doing THAT? Actually, if you know your SEO, there are some advantages to outlinking. [Read more…]

Blogging Allows Folks with Autism Equal Access

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You might not have considered it, but some of the folks who read your blog are probably autistic. Blogs make information accessible to people with autism in ways the auditory information is not.

Being a teacher and a peculiar person myself, I’ve more than a passing interest in how blogging has found a place in the lives of autistic people. Estee Klar-Wolfond is a blogger and the parent of a child with autism. I’ve been following Estee’s blog for a while now. She explains the blogging connection in this quote from her latest post.

Thankfully, the blog is an equalizer of humans . . . It is a universe, a “sphere� without rules, without barriers – faceless, sometimes nameless. It transcends some physical and attitudinal barriers and in this realm, one cannot judge another based on appearance or so-called levels of “functioning.�

Great Find: The Blog and Human Equality by Estee Klar-Wolfond
Type of Article: an editorial discussing the current views on autism and the impact blogging has had on the community of persons with autism
Permalink: http://joyofautism.blogspot.com/2006/04/blog-and-human-
Target Audience: Anyone who wants to know more about how blogging can change the lives of a population
Content: This is a serious read by a sincere author who knows the subject intimately and has done the research. I include it here because I know autistic people are among our readers and because knowing how others process what we write is valuable information. To access the article, click on the quote below by an autistic blogger taken from Estee’s article.

“Zilari� of Part Processing makes a number of comments on her processing time with colleagues at work:

“This is the main reason I prefer reading to listening. I like huge blocks of text I can sift through and find the relevance in. I like how text stays firm within time and does not melt away like sound. I like how reading does not demand every 30 seconds that one speaks to the text aloud and says, “Yes, I’m getting it, carry on!…”

Thanks Estee for sharing what you know with Successful Blog readers.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Editing: Just Some of My Very Different Thoughts

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Power Editing

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Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
— Mark Twain

In the Successful Blog Cafe last week Rob at Jamdo’s article offered advice on how to strip out excess words in your posts to increase keyword density. That’s good editing advice. In fact, much of editing is taking out ALL of the words that you don’t need.

Words that Writers Don’t Need

As bloggers, we write in a conversational tone, but conversation moves fast and easy. We can correct if someone doesn’t understand what we’re saying. They can interrupt if we’re going on, and on, and on, and on. We’re likely to notice if our audience walks away while we’re still talking.

Unfortunately, we don’t have those luxuries when the words are written. More written words don’t necessarily build more bridges and rapport. Additional words can get between the reader and our message. Here are places I go to remove extra words that creep in while I’m writing. [Read more…]

MUST HAVE: Content Theft Series

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This is more than a GREAT FIND. It’s a MUST HAVE. It’s going straight into the survival kit. Lorelle from WordPress has put together an amazing series of documents replete with facts on copyright and intellectual property that every blogger should have at his or her fingertips.

Great Find: What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content by Lorrell at WordPress
Type of Article: series on content theft
Permalink: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/
Target Audience: Anyone who puts content on the Internet

Content: Lorrell at WordPress, one of my personal heroes and a highly respected web journalist, did extensive research to pull together a series of three documents on what to do when you find yourself in the unhappy situation of having your content stolen, hijacked from your blog or website. The series goes deep with uncountable links and resources. Her advice is straightforward and crystal clear. The series covers the topic completely. I’ll let her describe it.

This is the first of three articles. This article covers tips, information and resources to help you deal with copyright infringement, the theft of your blog or website content. The second article includes helpful links and resources for finding stolen content and copyright infringements. The last article in the series examines the growing trends in content theft such as image hotlinking, website hijacking, and abusive use of feeds to replace original content without permission, as well as other copyright infringements on the rise.

Lorrell takes you through each part with step-by-step advice and sends you to the experts for more information. I’ve taken classes on copyright that didn’t cover the subject nearly this well.

Do yourself and your content the favor of checking this out. Click the screenshot to get started.

What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content?

Part 2: Finding Stolen Content and Copyright Infringements

Part 3: The Growing Trends in Content Theft

I need to write a poem to Lorrell at WordPress like I did for Improbulus.

Some of you must have had experience with content theft already. What happened? What did you do about it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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There’s No Putting ME in a Box

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A Heartwarming Story

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One more story–this one will explain the last. You may already know it. It’s inspiring and heartwarming. I’ve encountered it more than once myself.

A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with relish to run the race to the finish and win.

All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry.

They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back……every one of them. One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.” Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story.

It’s a lovely read, but it’s not what happened. [Read more…]