Great Find: Controlling Your Online Identity

March 11, 2006 by Liz

Great Find: Lifehacker: Have a Say in What Google Says about You by Gina Trapani
Type of article: Feature on personal identity, personal safety
Permalink:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/geek-to-live-have-a-say-in-what-google-says-about-you-152444.php

Target Audience:Everyone should know this
Content: Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor, offers valuable advice on how to make sure that what people find when they Google your name is actually information about YOU and information you want them to have. To quote the intoduction to the article

A recent poll here on Lifehacker shows that for about half of you, information about someone else with the same name or a web site you donÃ¢â¬â¢t control gets returned in search results for your name. Today weÃ¢â¬â¢ll go over the ins and outs of setting up a nameplate web site that makes you Googleable with a web page whose content YOU control. –Gina Trapani, Editor, Lifehacker

Using your name page is also a great way to promote yourself, your brand, and your business. Everyone should take a look at this one. To read all about it, click the screenshot.

Thanks for this important information, Gina.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: TopicâBlog Promotion

March 9, 2006 by Liz

I was exploring on Technorati this morning and I found this for you . . .

Topic: Blog Promotion

Great Find: Topic: Blog Promotion
Type of article: Link list of posts on blog promotion
Permalink: http://mostbloggers.blogspot.com/2005/11/topic-blog-promotion-mostbloggers.html
Audience: Anyone who is looking to promote their brand, their business, and their blog
Content: The screenshot shows just a piece of the list. There are actually 23 links to posts on blog promotion. Most of the links lead to more links, directories, tools you might use to establish and promote a blog. To quote the post, the links are all about

discovering ways to spread the word about your blog, how to increase readership. . .

So here you go. Click the screenshot to explore what is there.

When you’re done looking, come back. I’ll be here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Top 10 Successful Blogging Tips

March 2, 2006 by Liz

Robin Good Logo

I was going through my stats and had some time one afternoon this week. So when a social bookmarking referral came by, I naturally checked it out. I like to see where things stand with each of them and there are so many now its hard to keep track. I went to the search function and typed in Successful Blog. It’s always interesting to see what I get back.

One of the results was Robin Good’s How To Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips.

To be frank, I thought it was about time I learned how–no, no not really. But I did think it would be a fine addition to the Successful-Blog Survival Kit.
Great Find: The Robin Good’s How to Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips by Sharon Housley
Type of Blog: Blogging Basics
URL: Robin Good’s How To Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips.

Target Audience:Bloggers who are just starting out
Content: Sharon Housley who manages of marketing for FeedForAll wrote this article. She offers ten points and notes on each one. The points are basics of blog building technique and tactics. I’ve add my own points at the end of her list.

If you find this list useful, you also should know this about content.

Write content of the highest quality
Work to keep your writing voice consistent and friendly.
Post at predictable times so readers can look forward to something new.
Write about topics that you find relevant, that is, worth reading and talking about. In other words, write about things that are your passion.
Respond to your comments, your readers are the only ones who count.
Visit other sites and comment there, so that people see you as a reader too.

Hope this helps get you started!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If Youâre Looking for Blogger Status

February 6, 2006 by Liz

If you’re looking for Blogger Status, click the image link. . .

The URL is http://status.blogger.com/

You’ll note I’ve made this post into a page for Blogger users whenever you need it.
It’s there in the sidebar for you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: SEOmoz Beginnerâs Guide

January 26, 2006 by Liz

seomoz_org logo

Great Find: SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Type of Article: A Series of Articles on SEO
Permalink: Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Target Audience: Any blogger who is curious about SEO and how it works
Content: SEOmoz, a Seatlle-based Search-engine organization has put together this series to help individuals, organizations, and companies who have little to no experience with search engine optimization and want to learn the basics of how search engines work. The organization states their goal as to improve your ability to drive search traffic to your site and debunk major myths about SEO. We share this knowledge to help businesses, government, educational, and non-profit organizations benefit from being listed in the major search engines.

From this list it appears that they take their goals very seriously. The first four (in purple) give you a quick look at what you might be interested in further down the line. All of the articles are short and written in clear, plain English, so they’re easy to follow and, well, interesting to read. Take a peek.

This is one fine reference to add to your library. It’s nice to bump into an SEO org that wants to share what it knows in such an organized fashion. Thanks SEOmoz.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Tlog Blogging Tips Series

January 24, 2006 by Liz

Great Find: The Tlog Blogging Tips Series
Type of Article: A Growing Series of Articles on Setting Up and Running a Blog
Permalink: The Blogging Tips Series
Target Audience: Any blogger who wants to think about blogging or rethink the direction his or her blog is going.

Content: Pedro Timoteo, the Tlog owner and developer of this series is a network administrator. I’ve read through these posts and they put out in sequence the step-by-step basics of blogging. It’s well worth looking over for a thorough blog review. The organization has a programmer’s knack of parsing out knowledge in manageable chunks. They are delivered in language that is clear, accurate, and respectful of the reader. This belongs in everyone’s survival kit.

Look at this list.

What’s not to love about this? The thought that went into this series shows in the list alone.
AND there’s a whole blog beyond this.

–ME “Liz” Strauss