Cool Blog Contest

I read about this cool blog contest over at Jack Humphrey’s blog and was compelled to enter it. This really tall marketer named Jason Henderson has entered a contest called Blogging Idol. To win it he has to grow the largest number of new subscribers by August first. I don’t know how on earth anyone is going to be able to beat this guy based on the large amount and quality of his prizes.

Not a lot of junk like many other typical internet marketer contests. I entered it just to win just one of the prizes (a copy of several software products developed by Jack) - but there are tons more that will be worth entering as well.

All you have to do is sign up as one of Jason’s RSS feed subscribers to enter.  Check out his blog contest over here.

Hurry up, he only has a couple of more days. Good Luck!

 

blog contest, jason henderson

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Do Not Quote The Associated Press

One of the reasons why I teach my Articology article marketing system is to teach people how to write effective articles without having to resort to plagiarism. And this is the reason why… The Associated Press just put the word out that they are going to start charging people $2.50 per word for quoting their stories — even if you add a link to the original AP story.

Say WHAT!!! You heard me right.

Evidently this is in an effort to stop bloggers from basically swiping their stories and adding a link to them at the end (which no one will click since they already have the information). It’s basically theft. And they aren’t putting up with it anymore. Solution: Now I know that many of you get your ideas for blog content and articles from the AP wire. So basically you need to read the story once, don’t look at it again, and then re-write it in your own words using your own "voice". Avoid linking to them since you will be using your own words — but if you feel so inclined, you can add them as a (*source) for your articles and posts — just be darn sure that you haven’t written your story using their words.

AP, associated press, plagiarism

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Would You Read Your Favorite Blog On Kindle?

While I love gadgets. I tend to wait out the “first movement” of new gadget frenzy, and swoop in on the second movement when things get a little less expensive. For example, now I’m ready to buy the iphone. It’s faster and cheaper and comes out July 11th. Yea!

But I’m still waiting on the verdict of Amazon’s new portable reading device called a KINDLE. The things that sound great about a kindle are the fact that you can read the morning newspaper, a book, a blog, and other assorted documents on your kindle. And the information is delivered via “whispernet” which basically means wirelessly — but anywhere. You don’t need to be near a wifi hotspot to download your new book. Order it at Amazon, and it instantly downloads to your kindle. Cool huh?

I know what you’re thinking — but what about the feel of paper? The smell of your new book? Reading your favorite blog on a full color screen at home? Picking the newspaper up outside every morning and reading the comic pages (which seem to not be included in your kindle version of newspapers).

Well - you could kind of look at it as a very “Green” way of getting your information fix. Less paper — less trees — bigger forests I don’t know, what do you think? Would you read your favorite blog (like this one:) on kindle?

kindle

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What Should I Blog About?

I get questions from new bloggers and some intermediate bloggers too — on what the heck they should blog about.

Many people run out of ideas after they have tackled the bulk of the “usual questions” in their niche.

But you know what — while I could sit here and write you a Top 20 list of things to blog about — that’s just fodder for Digg

Really - what everyone needs to do is this…

1. Go to your google search history (or whatever search engine you use to research and troubleshoot) and look at what you searched on the past day or so.

2. Create a quick list of those searches (appropriate for your market) in your favorite text editing software. I use textedit for mac.

3. Now write a blog post for each of those searches - making sure to use the exact words you used to search for your solution in your post’s title and/or within the post. Because just how you searched for your solutions — is the same way that other people just like you are going to search for their own answers. *This works really well if you didn’t find too many results for your search– obviously.

Example: The other day I did a search for a problem I needed help with using a mac software program called Sandvox. I did the search but didn’t find any immediate answers. I had to go to their support staff. But now I can write a blog post about that exact same problem, offer a solution, so that when others search on the same issue — they will find help and it will come from MY blog

See — easy as pie!

blog content

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Free Blogger Templates

I created one of my first relationship-based blogs years ago via the easy-to-use blogger platform. As the blog grew - my knowledge and experience with blogging grew and I moved on to creating blogs via the wordpress platform. Since it was so easy to manage my blogger blogs, I never felt like moving them over to wordpress was worth the fuss. They were monetized and being followed and well-indexed — so I just left them alone. The only thing that really was a pain - was the amateurish templates that blogger offers. I hated them!

A few years ago, as my business begin to really grow and move in a different direction — I wanted all my sites and blogs to best reflect my evolution into a “entrepreneur” and not just a “hobbyist”. And the blogger templates were REALLY beginning to annoy me. So I went on a search for free blogger templates that were a bit more flexible and professional looking. I found a lot of junk. A lot of sites offering the same 20 templates - and I do mean a LOT! I was getting really frustrated.

Lately I saw that a few blogger blogs were looking very professional, but had their templates professionally done. Before I made that type of financial commitment, I wanted to check one more time and alas…I found a site that was really worthwhile over at eblogtemplates. Read more

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Thinking About Upgrading To Wordpress 2.5?

I am by no means a blogging expert, but let’s just say I’ve been around the block:-) So today I wanted to talk about upgrading your wordpress blog.

If you’ve been considering upgrading to version 2.5 (which is 2.5.1 at the time of this writing), then I highly recommend that you do it. It’s easy. And even if you write a pretty basic blog with no bells or whistles — you’ll just be happy about the new interface of 2.5 — it is a drastic improvement!

If you host your blog with a great company ( I use hostgator) then you probably have fantastico in your admin section. With fantastico you simply have to point and click and your blog will be updated to the newest version of wordpress.

Some people don’t like to use fantastico and prefer to upload new versions of wordpress manually by using a FTP client. If you use a mac like me, then I think fetch is the way to go.

Improvements include: multi-file uploading, one-click plugin upgrades, built-in galleries, customizable dashboard, salted passwords and cookie encryption, media library, a WYSIWYG that doesn’t mess with your code, concurrent post editing protection, full-screen writing, and search that covers posts and pages.

But best of all — is the interface– it’s simple and clean, and I haven’t run into any issues. Just make sure that your current wordpress template is compatible with 2.5. If you’re not sure — just be sure to back up your current blog before you upgrade. Go here to learn more and download: http://wordpress.org/download/

blogging, wordpress

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Premium Wordpress Themes For Solopreneurs

If you are a solopreneur looking to build your first website or update your old website, many business owners are using blogs as their only website for their businesses — especially because of the versatility of wordpress.

One of the problems with using only a blog interface is that some templates were not versatile enough to blog, and sell products, etc. Another is that some were just not pretty at all! OR they were very cluttered or basic blog layouts.

Well - a while ago I was looking for a new wordpress theme for another site I own and ran across developer Brian Gardner over at iThemes.

There are a lot of themes to choose from that will work really great for a solopreneur looking to establish a professional yet versatile web presence. Template themes include: essence series, icompany theme, business card series, revolution series, deep order series, ecommerce theme, corporate series, web 2.0 series, industrial series, and the brochure series. My favorite is revolution:)

Now while these themes do cost a few bucks - I think they are actually worth the investment. Because let’s be honest - not everyone is going to buy them! So you’ll have a unique presence in your market. Which definitely matters in this ever-crowding web world we live in.

blogging, premium wordpress themes, wordpress, wordpress themes

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Monetize Your Site With InfoProducts For Your Niche

I’m always looking for great new ways to increase the monetization of my information based blogs and sites. I’m sure you do too. And I think I’ve found one. Niche Widget!

If you notice to the right and down, there is a new widget on my blog which features information products that are specific to my readers at this blog. But if you go on AskGirlShrink or Relationship Survival, you will notice that I have the same styled widget, featuring different infoproducts. Those are relationship and self-improvement based. So the great thing with this new monetization strategy, is that you can find products that will work for almost any niche. Not just business or marketing.

Great thing - is that you can sign up for free and start earning money right away. Payments go to your paypal account (which I prefer), but I think you can also have payments sent by check as well. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

blog monetization, niche widget

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Get Paid For TopSpots On Your Blog

I’ve been working really hard the last few days working on the launch of my new article marketing continuity site - Articology. I swore that I said that I was going to outsource the writing of my sales page, but of course once again - I thought I could handle it because my 3 bunnies were home this week. No school. But in the middle of writer’s block, I went cruising for content and saw something interesting on a blog that I really like: InternetMarketingSweetie.

It’s this idea of a virtual tipping jar where people can give you a monetary “thank you” for all of your great blog content:) Kinda cool huh? While this isn’t a really new idea, you have always been able to add that Amazon or Payal button begging for tips - but this site does it in a really cool Web 2.0 way. Not only do you get a tip, but their site (with a live link) gets listed as a “top spot” on your blog. Everybody wins!

Check it out over at scratchback.com, and if you like anything you’ve read over here — feel free to leave me a tip!

blog tipping, good karma, scratchback, topspots

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When Someone Scrapes Your Blog

If someone scrapes your blog, it means that a very lazy person out there is stealing content from your blog and pasting it in theres to create the illusion of original content. Most of these people build blogs around various popular topics, scrape blogs for content, and profit through adsense and other monetization options.

It use to be that scrapers only stole content from the big bloggers. But now that’s getting a little too dangerous for them to do, so it’s much easier to steal from the smaller blogger who may not even know how to check to see if someone is stealing their content. This could be you!

Now, when someone scrapes your blog…

1. You may feel helpless and angry and want to call the copyright office, but that’s not the right protocol nor the way to get matters resolved quickly. Trust me - I’ve been through it.

2. The first step is a simple one and that is to contact the owner or webmaster of the blog usually by email. And give them the url of the content they scraped and the original url of where they can find your content. Make mention to them that they have used your content without your consent and you would like them to take it down within 24 hours. If you can get a hold of someone, this step is usually the last step. Most people will take it down fast. End of story. But if not…

3. The second step would be to contact them again if you haven’t heard from them via snail mail, telephone, etc.

4. The third step if you haven’t been satisfied is to contact the webhost and/or domain host of the site which has a responsibility to help you seek a resolution. You can check this by using the WhoIs database through GoDaddy.com. Just plug in the domain name and after it says that the domain is already taken - there will be a link next to it that you can click on which says “click here for info”. Click on that and you can usually find the owner’s name and contact information for the site.

Remember that anything you write on your blog that is your original content is protected under the copyright laws of the U.S. So you are in your full rights to pursue this course of action.

*Also if you own a blog powered by wordpress (like this one) or a blog which is actually on wordpress.com (a free one), then your rights and how you pursue copyright infringement can be a little different depending on which one you own. Learn more about wordpress content theft at Lorelle’s blog.

blog scraping, content theft, copyright infringement, wordpress

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