Silly Milly

Facebook Your Blog

Over the years we've heard lots of great ideas for promoting your blog, and have been compiling them here as a handy reference. From simply adding links to enabling cool newer features such as Following, we're always happy to update the page when we stumble across something new.

Our latest addition comes from our friends at TypePad, who have put together a great video on How to add your blog feed to your Facebook profile. After trying this ourselves, we've found that integrating your blog feed into your Facebook profile can be a really effective way to keep your friends updated on the latest from your blog.

So if you've been looking for slick new ways to expand your blog's audience, check out the video and give it a shot!

Your blog, your data

Today’s release features a brand new graduate from the Blogger in Draft testing ground: Import and Export for Blogger blogs.
The import/export feature opens up a whole new range of portability for your blogs, as well as allows for a few new options in the blog creation process. To get you started, we've rounded up a handful of ideas that can be done with importing and exporting:

• Merge two or more blogs into one. Have a few scattered blogs and want to get a fresh start? Now you can combine comments and posts from multiple blogs into a brand new blog.
• Move individual posts from blog to blog. Cross-publish your posts on multiple blogs, or transfer large batches of posts from one blog to another with a single click.
• Back up your blog to your own storage. It's never a bad idea to create backup copies of your own content, and now you can easily export an archival copy of your blog to your hard drive with a simple tool.
• Move your blog somewhere else. Our standard Atom XML export format will open up new blogging channels between providers, and let you take your content with you should you decide to move somewhere else. And of course, if you decide to come back to Blogger, importing your export file will get you back up and running in seconds.

You can access Import and Export from the Blog Tools section on the Settings | Basic tab.

We have also added new importing options to the blog creation process:

For some more detailed info on all of the things you can do with Import and Export, please check out our accompanying help article.
A couple caveats

• Currently we only support importing Blogger blogs. We don't yet support importing from WordPress, Typepad, LiveJournal or any other blogging platforms.
• Before importing a blog for the first time, we recommend that you create a new, throwaway blog to import into so you get a sense for how the process works. Once you’re comfortable, import into your public blog.
• If you have enabled a content warning for your blog, then you will have to remove it before your blog can be exported.

Taken From Buzz Blogger

 

 

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the "Top 10 Social Networking Tools To Help Boost Your Business". That post was intended for those who want to take advantage of the social networking craze. I'm talking about website giants like Fox.com, or ABS-CBN.com.
Now, if you're a blogger and all you think about the subject is just Myspace, Facebook or Friendster, think again. Blogging has never more social than today. If you have just started blogging or if you are now maintaining a handful, consider this - YOU CAN ACTUALLY BUILD YOUR OWN SOCIAL website.
Yes, think about having your own mini Frienster.com or Facebook.com. But, nah, forget about Ning.com. We're talking about earning something here. If your target is just to create community and collect friends without earning a buck, then go for Ning.com.
Starting from scratch, even with a free web hosting like Freehostia.com, yes, you can build your own social empire. Take for example this website : http://campusradio.co.nr. This website uses the open source software PHPizabi. It's free. You can download it via PHPizabi.net. Sign up at a free web host like Freehostia.com. Then install the software, in less than thirty minutes, you can start building your own social website.
But PHPizabi is not alone, there are more free softwares you can install like LOVD BY LESS, Mahara and Elgg. Check out this blog post here about the 5 best open source social networking software. I hope you get to try them.

 

 

Taken From http://profilelayouts.blogspot.com/

 

Problogger Darren Rowse is doing a feature called Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers, I certainly don’t class myself as a highly effective blogger but as I tend to post here a fair few times a day I guess that still makes me a blogger. So here are my opinions on what makes an effective blogger (or not).

 

Be part of the Blogging Community

Getting involved with the blogging community is great way to make contacts in your chosen niche and get you blog known. Leaving trackbacks to sites you quote and meaningful comments on other peoples sites. I always read sites that have linked to me and if I find something interesting will often quote them and return the link favor. I did have a rant about this last week and have made a few friends because of it.

 

Be Different

There are fair few blogs in the gadget niche, many of which seem to report on the same things. One of the things I try to do is find original content that hasn’t been reported all over the place already. I only ever cover stories off the “big” gadget blogs (Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.) if the story is really breathtaking or I have an interesting twist on it.

 

Persistence

We all have days when we can’t be bothered and at times you feel you’re writing stuff but nobody is reading and that all the search engines hate you. Having a popular site takes time and effort so perserverance is key.

 

Be Passionate about the Subject

Blogging about something you have a passion about is so much easier than writing about a subject that you don’t really enjoy. It will come across in your posts and help to keep you motivated.

 

Don’t Spam

Every blogger wants readers (and if you don’t you may want to consider why you’re blogging in the first place), so promoting your blog is important but spamming is a sure fire way to alienate your self amongst the blogging community. If you think an promotion method is spammy don’t do it.

 

Be Professional with Speling and Grammer

If you want to give a professional impression, check you grammar and spelling. Doing a spell check takes seconds and if you can’t be bothered to read your own posts and check the grammar why do you expect your readers to read it.

Like I said in the opening paragraph I don’t really class myself as an effective blogger but the above points are what I reckon make me the sort of blogger I am. I’m also looking forward to reading other bloggers thoughts to gain ideas on how I can improve.

Normal gadget posting will resume shortly :).