Successful Blog

FUN Finds: How to Be a Blogging Idol

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FUN Find: How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead of An Idle Blogger by Cube Management
URL: How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead of An Idle Blogger
Type of Article: How-To, First-Person Narrative
Target Audience: Anyone interested in blogging and reader behavior; Fans of Bo Bice and the TV show American Idol

cubemanagement_com

Content: To be successful at Search Engine Optimization, it’s important that you continually test out new theories and ideas. begins this how-to article. It goes on to describe how the “first person” behind this first-person narrative started a blog for each contestant on American Idol to test SEO Theory. The goal of the project was to have 1-2 sustainable blogs in place with massive traffic by the final show.

The writer divides information into Beginner Lessons:

  • Have a narrow focus.
  • Build a content base.
  • Post several times a week.
  • Use ads if appropriate.

and Advanced Techniques:

  • Blog and Ping.
  • Use conventional link building.
  • Use press release.
  • Actively solicit posts.

Two techniques this test used–building blogs that would die and using link trading markets–are not strategies that I’d sign my name to. However, this article presents an interesting story to support the writer’s claim that One doesn’t need to be a SEO ace to be able to create a blog that can generate a large number of visitors. It’s an interesting test to follow.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Quick Hits for Your Leisure Time

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As if you don’t have enough to do, here’s some stuff for your leisure time. 🙂

Computer Stuff

Black Hat SEO’s list of Free Blog Hosting Services [via The Blog Herald]

gHack’s List of Free File Hosting Sites

Puzzles and Brain Stuff

John Rausch.com highlights include

The Sliding Block Puzzle Page

Modern Sliding Block Puzzles

ScientificPsychic.com highlights include

Word Puzzles and Brain Teasers

Optical Illusions

Personality Tests

[via digg, unless otherwise noted]

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Fun Find: Design Personality Indicators

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FUN Find: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators by Molly of Molly.com
Type of Article: Psychological Analysis, based loosely on the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicators
Permalink: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators
Target Audience: Anyone who is a designer, works with designers, or plans to do either

Content: Molly, a self-professed geek, typed up this article on a ship in the Eastern Caribbean where she was teaching CSS on a Geek Cruise. (Now doesn’t that sounds like something we should be putting into our own business plans?) She loosely applied the Myers-Briggs personality type indicators to Web Designers and Developers to describe who you might find the next time you meet a designer to work on your blog. These are the six types Molly identifies.

  • OFAD–Old Fart Anti-Design Designer
  • OSVD–Old Skool Visual Designer
  • TTLM–Trying to Learn More Designer
  • SAVD–Standards-Aware Visual Designer
  • SASS–Standards-Aware Structural Semanticist Designer
  • SACE–Standards-Aware Cutting-Edge Designer

Molly describes each personality type in detail and places herself on the scale as well. It’s a fun read that rings true to this writer who’s spent some time with designers and their idiosyncracies.

Still, since I’m not in the market for a new design yet, I’m going to file the document–right after I check into that number for Geek cruises. I could use a vacation that’s a tax write off. I wonder how it would feel to be the only nerd on a shipload of geeks? I guess I’d have to bring my son along–he’s multi-lingual.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Joel Auchenbach Is an SOB of the Very Best Kind

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Joel Achenbach from WashingtonPost.com


Today at WashingtonPost.com, Joel Auchenbach responded on his Auchenblog in to our discussion of Sabine’s article on his commenting community in our post Great Find: Commenting on CTBIZBlogs. Mr. Auchenbach began by saying:

The Boodle is the buzz of blogworld. At CTBizBlogs, Sabine writes about “the amazing community that’s sprung up in the comments” of the A-blog. (She heard about it from Stephen Baker in his Blogspotting column for Business Week; Baker took note of the large number of comments about the dog-pee item written by Tom Shroder.) She writes, “When readers leave comments on most blogs, the comments are usually about that particular post — people weighing in with additional information, questions, corrections, opinions. But the comments on some posts here read almost like they’re from discussion forums, with regular readers referring to comments made by other readers in past posts. The conversation weaves in and out of the posts and comments, and swirls around the various personalities who now know each other, online at least.” . . .

Thank you, Joel, for taking the conversation further and for caring about community as much as we do. Your Successful and Outstanding Blogger (SOB) button will be on it’s way to you via email immediately.

Joel Auchenbach’s Button

SOB Button

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Fun Find: DONTCLICK.IT

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Great Find: DONTCLICK.IT by Institute for Interactive Research
URL: www.dontclick.it
Target Audience: Anyone interested in web interfaces and interactivity

Content: The Institute has packed more information than first meets the eye when you enter this award-winning, flash-driven website. Everywhere you mouse over you will find options to learn and invesigate without ever needing to click.

Dont click it

You can play a game called Housecamp. It’s a bit addictive and not easy. You can cast your vote for clickless interactivity and try out several types of clickless button interfaces. You can explore the history of computers, leave a message in the crowd of visitors, and much, much more. Look for something behind every word you see. In the experiment lab, you can replay how others moved through the site. This website is like a giant puzzle. Enjoy and explore at the same time.

Be sure to mouse over the gold seal on the opening screen before you go in.

Who knows? There may come a day when the words click here will be history.

–ME “Liz” Strauss