Blogging

Every day I read hundreds of blog posts. Between work, hobbies, and the daily ‘must reads’ my Bloglines reader is always chock full. As I rule, I bookmark articles and blog posts that I find interesting. I also tend to jot down new websites and ideas into a black notebook, my ‘internet black book‘. This week, I thought I would bust out my notebook and share with you the sites which have picqued my interest.

Picnik: A free and easy online photo-editing tool. Picnik allows you to upload and edit photos from your desktop and Flickr & Photobucket accounts. With Picnik you can crop, touch up, resize, and eliminate red eye, all from the same easy console.

TubeMogul: This one is cool, especially if you are into making and sharing videos online. TubeMogul enables you to upload your video and distribute it to the top video sites, including You Tube, Google Videos, and MySpace, simultaneously. If you’ve tried uploading a video to more than one video sharing site before you know how long it can take. TubeMogul allows you to upload the video just once, yet distribute it to all of the major video sites without having to upload it multiple times.

ScribeFire: (Thanks Matt!) This is an amazing time saving tool for those of you who contribute to multiple blogs. ScribeFire is a free Firefox Plugin which allows you to blog from one main console and then have it published to one, two or all of the blogs on your blogging list. Once installed, the ScribeFire icon will appear at the bottom right hand side of your screen. Anytime you come across a story or photo you want to blog about, click on the icon and it will open the ScribeFire console on the bottom half of that very same screen. NO more going back and forth between pages!

Now that I’ve shared my list, I encourage you to introduce me to other sites that YOU think are cool or innovative. Leave a comment!

As the end of 2007 approaches it seems like a perfect time to recap our most popular and commented blog posts:
7. More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Linking

How much are certain links worth? Are directories valid? Should you pay for links? How do you measure your linking success?

6. Microsoft Jumps in the Ad Company Buyer’s Club

Now Microsoft jumps to prove they’re not out of the online advertising game with a whopping $6 billion purchase of aQuantive in a move to expand their breadth of paid opportunities on web sites, Internet television, video on demand, and other places online.

5. The Human Element of Search

Take a look at your homepage. What does it say? Does it give you a clear sense of personality… say, clean-cut professional, serious business or funky casual?

4. What Happened to my Google Page Rank - SEO Audio

Were you one of the thousands of web site owners crying foul this week? Or maybe you hardly know what a PageRank is, but want to know the kind of thing that gets bloggers from coast-to-coast, time zone to time zone gossiping and ganging up on Google

3. Blogging your way to The Top of the Search Engines in Minutes

Although Google’s search ranking methods are usually shrouded in mystery, we can assume from these two examples, that Google may be using its Blog Search feature in collaboration with its general search to retrieve the most up-to-date information on any given topic.

2. Is Your Website Ready for Cyber-Monday?

With online holiday sales expected to hit 39 Billion dollars, it is essential to make sure your e-commerce site is in tip top shape.

1. Thinking about Buying or Selling Paid Links? Think Again…

Webmasters have been aggravated for weeks because of Google’s more aggressive policy, with most of the drops in PageRank a few weeks ago blamed on a penalty to sites perceived as buying or selling paid links.

I’m embarrassed, a few days ago, Fred kindly reminded me that the only posts on the first page of our blog were from him…I haven’t written in a little while. Yikes, I’m Sorry! I’m supposed to be the blogging guru, aren’t I?

Well to be honest, I’ve got a problem. I can’t think of a single thing to write! The end of the year is near, I’m trying to wrap up some super sweet new website projects and my free moments are spent checking emails and finding the latest toy deals on Amazon.com. But alas, I digress, because blogging is my passion. I need to put down the credit card and start writing…unfortunately, I’m blocked by visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.

Just in case, you too are needing some inspiration for a blog post, I’ve created a list of blogging tips:

1. Top 10 Lists - It’s the end of the year, Top 5, 10 & 100 Lists are everywhere! From the Top 10 Most Popular Shows of 2007 to the Top Searched Phrases , lists are popular and great for attracting inbound links.

2. Create an extension of another blogger’s post - Did you come across a blog post or news item that you completely agree with or think is controversial? Go ahead an create a blog post about your thoughts and opinions on the subject. Link back to the original article, detail your point and hope that others will chime in with their thoughts.

3. Company News - Have you hired a new employee? Promoted somebody? Created a new division? Surpassed a sales goal? These are all great topics to cover. Your clients will enjoy keeping up with the latest happenings at the company. Once they know that current events are tracked in your blog, the likelihood that they will return seeking new information is greater!

4. Try the Cosmo Headline Technique - Take the latest issue of Cosmo (or any other guilty pleasure publication you subscribe to) and create a post based on one of their most compelling headlines.

Example: Yowzer! 40% of Women to do this in their sleep

Your Post: Yowzer! 40% of HR Professionals look here for Software!

5. Just Do It - When I began typing this post, I had no idea where it was going. I just knew that I needed to write, the readers needed new and useful information…so I let my fingers go. Ta-dah! The post is done.

Have a great weekend and stay tuned for our new SEO Audio podcast on Friday Morning.

Not to give up the topic of this week’s SEO Audio, but an article by Matt Cutts this weekend progresses the issue of buying and selling paid links debate to one more degree with very strong evidence to support Google’s position.

Webmasters have been aggravated for weeks because of Google’s more aggressive policy, with most of the drops in PageRank a few weeks ago blamed on a penalty to sites perceived as buying or selling paid links. That net-wide rumor let to a huge number of irate webmasters crying foul, while Google maintains that the drop in PageRank was as much related to a re-calculation of the PageRank algorithm as to greater policing.

So, if this is all new to you, here’s the recap:

• Google has said not to sell paid links that pass PageRank for a while now, but only recently has taken a more aggressive stance towards penalize sites that are selling links.
• People are angry, especially small-time bloggers and some search marketers who rely on paid links as a source of income. Their argument is that a webmaster has the right to do with their website as they please.
• Google’s argument is that buying or selling links that pass PageRank effectively skews search results to favor sites that may not be relevant and with a budget sufficient enough to buy those links. Google is OK with links with a rel=nofollow attribute that keeps the link from passing PageRank. The reasoning behind their position was well explained by Matt Cutts in the article mentioned above.
• Google is definitely taking action, though the extent of which and methodology is largely unknown. Penalties include everything from stripping a site’s PageRank to de-indexing a site altogether. Obviously that takes a tremendous toll on a website, beside it it being quite a pain to get back into Google.
• Some people are saying they just don’t care while others are reluctantly bowing to Google.

There are strong arguments on both side of the camp, which really highlights how ambiguous this issue really is (is a link traded for a service “paid”? How about donations? Don’t I have a right to make money with my site? It’s not fair to allow paid product listings to get a competitive advantage to sites who can’t afford to buy links, right?).

Regardless of your stance on the issue, the possibility of a Google penalty is just too big a risk to take. We strongly recommend that if you’re currently buying or selling links or paid reviews on your site, you phase them out or put a “nofollow” on them. And if anyone proposes buying links from you, well… How much is the risk of a Google penalty really worth to you?