Blog Update
Well...I've eliminated Sports at a Glance and The Games Room...and will be eliminating The Cave as soon as I can transfer over lce's stories to another blog.
That brings us down to the ten most popular blogs...and two test blogs...I don't want to go any lower than ten...so...these ten need to be maintained.
The test blogs will come in handy for both the blogs and the main site at Bravenet.
The free photo version should be ok without upgrading as Image shack is free and can be utilized for the standard pictures and if we need more than the allowed amount...we should probably just use their photo centre for random pictures that are uploaded then later replaced ( pictures that constantly change )
we can utilize the free StatCounter for the counter...as that's what I use here...
Eg ;)
And...
www.icerocket.com
www.feedminer.com
and...
www.exploreblogs.com
even though we haven't actually been submitted yet to the last one...they require a link to it first before you can submit.
Eg ;)
Update Feeds
OK...a few more need to be added...
www.truthlaidbear.com
www.blogdex.net
www.bloogz.com
www.search4rss.com
www.feed-directory.com
and...for the sake of consideration...because I do ping them often...
www.feedster.com
www.technorati.com
and...because it accepts blogger feeds automatically...
www.pubsub.com
dear feeds,
I'll be getting around to this shortly...right now it's 7:09am and I've been at this all night :eek:
Updates
Well..I finally added the feed links to all the blogs...only took me almost 3 hours on dial-up :eek:
and...
I added us to two more feeds... www.blogpulse.com ...and... www.rssfeeds.com
still more to go...some require a full description for each submission...and that takes a lot of time...so I try to avoid them until I have the time.
Eg ;)
Links Provided by Mr. Back
Well...that was a glorious waste of time...most of the links go nowhere and the ones that do usually go to a page that is completely useless...
good job Mr. Back...you've been a great help! ( read: sarcasm )
Eg ;)
Ping Services 2
Normally I use Ping-O-Matic or Pingoat...usually Pingoat ( which is why I've linked to their site )...but I'm new to these sites by Elliot Back...
when it comes to Feed Sites, some can be rather irritating and slow...the ones I've linked to on the side menu were the best ones I've come across for ease of use ( though I haven't even scratched the surface yet...there are still hundreds I haven't tried )...
I'll be checking out Mr. Back's list of Ping Sites to see which ones seem to be the most user friendly and will link to them accordingly.
Eg ;)
Other Various Helpers
Nuova pagina 2Windy's Design Studio - Free backgrounds, web design, graphics, Windows themes, HTML tips, javascript, fonts, midi jukebox and quality web design.Wordwizard Clubhouse - SearchAbsoluteCross.com : A one-stop resource for webmasters, programmers, and graphic designersBlogger Hacks - The Series - Freshblogtext link ads - Google SearchFree Website Templates, Photoshop and Flash Web Templates
Other notables
"
Guestbooks
There are a number of sites that offer free guestbook services. You can do a Google search to find them, or you can start by checking out some of these links:
Tagboards
Tagboards are like little messages attached to your blog, where your readers can leave you notes. They differ from comments, which are attached to individual posts, in that you just have one tagboard for your whole site, and visitors can read the messages right on your homepage. It can be a good way to encourage interaction among your readers and create a sense of community on your blog.
There are a number of sites that offer free tagboard services. You can do a Google search to find them, or you can start by checking out some of these links:
I like this one^^^
AudioBlogger
Note: AudioBlogger is a third-party product offered in partnership with Blogger.
AudioBlogger lets you post audio snippets to your blog from any telephone. Read more about it in Blogger Knowledge: On The Road with AudioBlogger. Then sign up and get started here:
http://audioblogger.com/
Be sure to read the AudioBlogger FAQ, and contact Listenlab if you have any questions or suggestions."
also from Blogger Help
More of Interest
Polls...
"
There are a number of sites that offer free poll services. You can do a Google search to find them, or you can start by checking out some of these links:
Blogger Help
I'm putting this here from Blogger Help because we may be able to use and check these features and advice...
just for the sake of noting those items of interest...only those items we were not already aware of...or may be aware of and just don't know it :D
"
Install Email This Post. News sites like
The New York Times Online have had a feature like this for years, it allows people to simply forward an article to a friend via email. If you use
Email This Post on your blog, people will be able to forward your posts to friends. This may not have an immediate impact on your site stats but it enables others to publicize your blog for you. That's good stuff.
Turn on Post Pages. If you're still only archiving by day, week, or month you are living in the past man. You've got to make sure you are publishing every post as its very own web page with Post Pages. That makes your entries way more link-able and more attractive to search engines. Links to your blog means traffic to your blog. This is an easy setting in Blogger.
Turn on your site feed. When people subscribe to your site feed in their newsreaders, it means they are definitely going to read your post. The folks who subscribe to site feeds are the type of people Malcolm Gladwell calls "mavens" in his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Long story short: these people will help you get more traffic so turn on your site feed.
Add your blog to Blogger's listings. This is a really obvious one but at some point during the blog creation process there's a chance many of you initially thought "Oh, I'm not sure I want to be public just yet. I'll mark that as 'no.'" Go back in there and mark it "yes." When you
add your blog to our listings then it shows up in Nextblog, Recently Updated, and other places. It's like opting-in to traffic. Do it.
Keep search engines in mind. Note that sometimes your "audience" is whoever stumbles into your site from a web search. Search is a great way to bring in new visitors and there are a few things you can do to make your blog more search engine friendly. Use post titles and blog page title tags along with your post page archiving. This will automatically give each of your post pages an intelligent name based on the title of your post. Also, try to be descriptive when you blog. A well crafted post about something very specific can end up very near the top results of a search. For example, a Google search for "Book Cover Design" features this blog post by the illustrious Jason Kottke complete with reader comments.
Put your blog URL in your email signature. Whenever I see a blog url in an email signature, I always click on it to see who I'm dealing with. Especially if it's someone I've never met. Email gets forwarded all the time so even if you only send out a five notes a day to friends, the potential number of people clicking over to your blog is in the thousands. (That is of course completely theoretical, but you get my drift—it's worth it.) I can't give you specific instructions on how to edit your email client's signature because I don't know which one you use, but poke around. It's somewhere in the settings.
Sumbit your address to blog search sites and directories. People look for blog content at Technorati every day, are you on their list? You should be. Submit your blog's url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex, Popdex, and any other site of that ilk you come across. With the exception of Technorati, many of these sites are hobby or graduate student projects but they continue to gain visitors looking for interesting blogs to read, bookmark, and revisit. Not all of them have the power to crawl ever blog in existence so you can help them help you by dropping your url in the appropriate field.
Participate in meme games. A meme is an idea transmitted from person to person like a virus. If the flu was a blog, it would get crazy traffic. With all the sickness and disease analogies, blog induced memes are actually fun and can win you some extra traffic. How do they work? Basically a blogger will propose an idea like "Hey, let's post the first sentence of our favorite book!" and it will catch on like crazy with people linking to each other's submissions obsessively until the game dies down. A favorite meme for years was the Friday Five, if you're looking for something new, try The Daily Meme.
Advertise. If keyword advertising were affordable enough, I'd say go for it. For now, free is a good way to go. BlogSnob is a network of free, text-based blog advertisers that you can join right now. Host ads, place ads, it's all traffic. BlogSnob ads blend right into your site and are fully customizable. Bloggers who join the network can place free ads, while sometime in the near future real advertisers will have to dish out to get noticed. It pays to be a blogger.
Install a blogroll. This is similar to linking. Well actually, it's the same but different. Blog posts eventually drop off the front page and get archived. A blogroll is more of personal statement: these are the bloggers I like. Or, this is the crowd I'd like to be associated with. It's a very simple yet effective social networking scheme and it has the same result as a simple link if not stronger: traffic! So if you don't have one yet, sign up for a blogroll and get that link-list going.
Biz Stone works at Google on Blogger and writes books about blogging.
Blog Shares
Apparently...all but three of our blogs were already listed...as I tried to add them...only Silly Puddy, The Space Oddessey, and this one was not listed.
The figures are fantasy figures...some blogs in this game are worth over 100 billion dollars...not quite sure how they play it yet but i'll keep my eyes open :D
Eg ;)
Blog Fantasy Marketing
Apparently that site I keep forgetting about has Egalitarian Graphics up from the $1000 it started with to over $3500 now and going up...six other blogs are also on their board now too.
Seems I wasn't a member after all...they just chose the blogs somehow...so I signed on.
I'll see what it's about.
Update
Well...I got the title finally raised and centered...had to add some code to get it done...
in the long run this is going to increase the exposure of every blog...by creating a main portal page with thumbnails and links to/of the other blogs they will be more inclined to check those links out...than just plain text links...
so...adding this to the mix each blog will get twice as much promotion.
Once I get this started.
Eg ;)
Well...
Almost got it to where I want it to be ... still lots to do but at least it's presentable ...
still have to center the description...add color to the post title...fix a couple of links...add some links...raise the header about a 1/4 inch...etc...
this template is as messed up as a dog's breakfast...post data mixed with side-bar data...and why don't they use plain english, instead of saying ' post p ' why not just say it as it is...who the frig knows what ' p ' stands for...sheeeeeesh!
This would be a lot easier and go a lot faster if I knew what everything was...instead of going through them one-by-one to find out what they are.
Eg ;)
Still to do...
Still have to figure out how to raise the title closer to the top away from the posts and center it more...
and the Ads are kinda cramped up with the post dates...so..I have to figure out how to put some space between them...
and I'd like to wrap a double red box around the title just to see what it'd look like ...
a work in progress
Eg ;)
Navagation bar
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