A group writing project on StumbleUpon, YouTube and MySpace

I’d like to invite all my readers to participate in my StumbleUpon, YouTube and MySpace Group Writing Project. It is part of Vivien’s Social Media Mega Project.

There are several good bloggers involved in it, each of them hosting a part of this huge project. I encourage you to click on any of the previous links to learn more.

Keep on reading a1-fan-fun in the days to come, for I’m going to publish more social media related stuff there. Also make sure to read Abaminds this week, because I’m going to post an interview with a very nice blogger who incidentally is a social media user too. ;)

Two New Blogs By Yours Truly

One of them isn’t really “new” but it’s been recently modified. What have I modified on it? Almost everything: theme, purpose, content, post length… See for yourselves: http://a1-fan-fun.com.

The other blog is aimed at all content producers. By “content producers” I mean writers, bloggers, webmasters, forum owners, social media users, videomakers etc. Abaminds is intended to be a repository of ideas and inspiration.

If you like Karen Zara Dwells Here and miss its updates, now you’ll find plenty of posts to keep you busy for quite some time. ;)

Many thanks for your continuous support! It means a lot to me. :D

Merry Christmas!

Two great resources for bloggers and a new blog carnival

Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know About Social Media – Steven Snell has recently organised a social media group writing project. This is the final list of submitted articles. Some deal with specific sites, others deal with general social media.

Great Articles That Should Be Read – Diana Bajenaru has compiled a huge list of articles about blogging, writing, photography, security and other relevant subjects.

Resource For Bloggers – Here comes Diana again, this time with a brand new blog carnival. Submissions to the first edition are still open, but you should hurry up if you want to have your blogging-related articles included.

Make money by accepting tips from your visitors

ScratchBack is a cool system that may work even for low-traffic sites. It lets you collect tips from your visitors; they get links in return (all no-followed, in case you’re concerned about Google’s guidelines). And if you want some cheap promotion for your site, this might be worth a try too.

This is a project by Jim Kukral.

PageRank Checking Tool

After the latest Google PageRank update, this blog’s main page went down from 2 to 0. On the other hand, several internal pages now have a decent PageRank. Not that I really care about it, as you can see here. But in case you care, and/or if you’re curious, go to LivePR.info, type in the desired homepage’s URL, and get a long list of internal pages accompanied by their respective PR.

A blog in need of two weekly columnists

David from eXtra For Every Publisher is currently looking to hire two weekly columnists. If you have strong experience in subjects such as blogging, SEO, social networking, WordPress etc., you may contact David with your rates and blog URL.

It’s a pity I don’t qualify for this job. While I’d certainly be able to write two weekly articles of 500+ words on those topics, I don’t think I have the level of expertise he’s looking for. Anyway, if you decide to apply, I wish you good luck! :-)

You’ve Left Comments, Now I’ll Link Back

It’s been ages since I last replied to any comments here. I know, I know, this is one of the worst things a blogger can do: letting their commentators think they’ve been ignored. That wasn’t the case though, as I get (and read) all comments via email. And to show you all that you are very important to me, and that your comments are always welcome and valued, I’ve decided to link back to you.

Now some will say that linking back to other blogs has always been this place’s main trait. That’s right, but one thing I usually don’t do here is that sort of “weekly links” or “speed linking” posts. While I like them as a reader, I prefer listing a small amount of links on each of my posts, with a few exceptions. Well, it’s never too late to try new things (i. e., to mimic your fellow bloggers’ traditional practices).

Here is my thank you to all whom I owed replies to (in no particular order):

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* Frank C

Watch Out For This Comment Spam – A new type of comment spam is explained in this article.

5 More Ideas on Value Blogging – He tells an interesting personal experience.

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* Monika

RSS Explained – Lifting the Mystery of RSS FEEDS – Excellent guide for beginners.

100 Articles in 1 Month – My Journey – Read it and realise that it’s not impossible.

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* Simonne

15 Almost Free Opportunities To Make Money Online – Great post. Pity it’s only helpful to people living in English-speaking countries.

How To Make An Affiliate Shop Using Data Feeds In WordPress – This post, on the other hand, would be useful for any WordPress users.

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* Sean

How To Make Your First ClickBank Sale – Some might argue that this post contains unethical tips. Others might disagree.

7 Reasons Why The Best Marketers Are Bloggers – A good list, but the 4th reason is by far my favourite, because of its amusing tone.

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* Steven Snell

The Pros and Cons of Writing for Other Blogs – Steven’s posts on guest blogging are all must-reads.

Vandelay Website Design Services – Actually not a blog post, but a page where you can get information on website design services.

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* Matt Jones

4 Steps Towards Successful Online Entrepreneurial Decision Making – Some simple ideas to help you decide what’s better for you, instead of letting others tell you what to do.

Story Behind The Sale Of Blogging Fingers – Yes, Matt has sold his blog. And turned his own story into an interesting case study.

***

* Maki

Four Reasons Why the Entertainment Niche Is Great For Making Money – This article is very different from the usual guides you’d find on most make-money-online blogs.

Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter. Can We Stop Talking About It Now? – Sorry, Maki, but we can’t. Not yet. But this post is excellent all the same.

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* Karthik

172 ways to save the Environment – As you can tell, this was his Blog Action Day post.

9 Plugins to kick-start your WordPress blog – Plugins that help you build readership.

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* Eklavya

Related post plugin of WordPress : How to install it by running a SQL query – An in-depth tutorial that may help even those not so savvy bloggers.

Some Blogging trends which are here to stay! – I don’t really believe in “trends that are here to stay” because life is just too dynamic. Still this is a very interesting read.

***

* Mohsin

A Crash Course On Writing Search Engine Optimized Posts – Easy-to-follow instructions.

How To Turn Your Personal Blog Into a Semi-Pro Blog – The last item on this article made me a bit confused, because despite the fact that this is a freely-hosted blog, Mohsin has left a couple comments here.

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* Michael

Top 3 FREE Website Monitoring Tools – Many bloggers have been telling their readers not to obssess over stats, but tracking a site’s traffic is still very important and these tools may be of great help.

Top 10 Signs That You Have Monetized Blogitis –  It’s a funny article, and also an important alert.

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* Terry Didcott

Writing Honest Paid Reviews and “The Gonster” – Guess who “The Gonster” is?

Blogging Links – This explains why linking out is good for you and for your blog.

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*  Nick Bakewell

Promotion is Perseverance – It is indeed.

Get Indexed In Google In One Day – When replying to a comment I’d left on another post, Nick confirmed that this technique does work.

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* Webdrops

I don’t know this person’s name, but I assume he/she belongs to the team behind TaskBin, which seems to be a good task management service.

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* Michael Martin

Why You Should Use A Sideblog – This is the type of idea that could generate even more ideas.

Paid Theme Directory is Fine By Me – I guess this will become a hot topic very soon. Michael analyses its highs and lows.

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* A note to Alex from blogindiversity.com: I know you’ve commented on a few posts of mine, and I truly appreciate it. But I couldn’t link to any of your articles because I simply can’t access your blog. The other day my sister tried to visit it using a proxy server, and she succeeded in it. So I guess you have some sort of IP blocking in place. :(

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Hopefully my “comment reply debt” is paid now. :-P

I suspect that many — if not all — of the bloggers listed above won’t even remember that last month they posted comments I never responded to, but nevermind.

This list will keep you all busy for a long time (I can tell you it’s kept me busy for hours). I hope I haven’t skipped anyone, but in case I have, please let me know.

Get a Free Backlink from Blogging Bits

What a great opportunity! Read about Mohsin’s offer and take advantage of it by all means. Unless you’re a spammer, in which case your links won’t be welcome, of course.

(I ended up using the same post title as Mohsin. That wasn’t intentional though.)

Blogging Bit‘s offer is the kind of activity that might be adapted to most blog types. If you’re looking for some promotion and additional interaction with your audience, this is definitely something worth a try.

Design tips as examples of well-written articles

Let me tell you one basic fact about me: when it comes to web design, I’m a complete moron. I certainly know the difference between a horrible design and an acceptable one. But I wouldn’t be able to develop the latter myself. I’m afraid I wouldn’t even manage to do the former one. So, I was delighted to find an amazing design tip series on The Go MediaZine. It’s called “Seven Easy Principles to Becoming a Master Designer,” and so far there are 3 articles available (1st, 2nd and 3rd).

All of the posts are exceptionally well-written. If an amateur like me could fully understand those lessons, anyone can. Therefore, they are must-reads for all bloggers who want to learn how to write good content that is:

a) useful;

b) easy to understand;

c) appealing even to readers that don’t necessarily fit one’s target-audience.

You’ll also see:

1. how images can be wisely used in a post;

2. how to write proper examples when you want to explain a concept to your readers.

View it as a double task: go learn (or remember) some design basics and get inspiration from some truly good articles.

Promote your Blog Action Day posts

If you are taking part in Blog Action Day, you may like to know that there’s a place where your related stories can gain more visibility. I’m talking about Care2, a wonderful green/social action site.

The most obvious way to promote a specific blog post over there is by submitting it to Care2 News Network. It’s just like Digg, but as you must have guessed, it’s specialised in environment, science, green lifestyle and charities. Absolutely do not submit unrelated stories.

Did you know that on Care2 you’ll find a plethora of groups about just any topic you can think of? That’s a great way to meet like-minded fellows, exchange views and… yes, maybe plug your stuff, if you’re cautious and wise enough.

If you really are into social networking, go to the People section and see how many great things you can find there: new friends, photos, blogs… Yes, you can have your own Care2 blog. What’s more: you can easily share your posts, lists, recipes and even create some informal newsletters (known as network messages).

On the People section you will find dozens of tags that indicate what Care2 members are interested in. They could be a great source of inspiration for new posts. You may also gather inspiration by reading the articles available on Green Living, and by checking the petitions listed on the site. I’m sure you’ll end up signing some (or many) of them, because you’ll certainly find causes that you’ll be happy to support.

Oh, do you want to support even more causes? Click here. And then click more. ;-)

I hope you have realised that Care2 is a site meant for people who care for other people, for the environment, for the world. That should be obvious enough. But unfortunately there must be many marketers out there who see this whole Blog Action Day thing as yet another way to show how much they care… for themselves, for money, for success, for fame.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong in trying to promote your blog on sites like Care2 — as long as it’s related to this kind of niche, of course. The site itself gives you plenty of promotional opportunities. Moreover, if I found it unethical, I wouldn’t have written this post.

All I ask is that you use some common sense. If you’re really not interested in human rights, if you think that global warming is a lie, and if all things green bore you to no end, then just look for another venue to promote your stuff. It’s simple like that.