Archive for July, 2006

BlogHer Buzz!

Published by Beth on July 28, 2006 in BlogBurst Success Stories. 0 Comments

Here at the BlogHer conference in San Jose, CA and I can barely hear the clicks of my keyboard with the din of female voices discussing their blogs, networking, walking around the exhibit area and learning about new technologies and Web 2.0 companies. This place is buzzzzzzing!

The whole conference hall is jam packed, the lunch line is wrapping out the building, female bloggers from all over the country and the world, even, are sitting in large circles blogging about the conference and new ideas. These women bloggers mean serious business. We are excited to be here educating the crowds about BlogBurst and how we can help bloggers reach more readers, drive traffic to their blog and share their ideas to a wider audience. We will continue to update you on conference fun over the next two days.

Pluck will be presenting BlogBurst tomorrow at the conference at 12:30 - by the pool. Bring your suit, floaties - there may be water ballet involved.

Middle East Blogs

Published by Beth on July 24, 2006 in General. 3 Comments

For the last month, we have been gathering impressive and significant blogs from the Middle East. Their focus couldn’t be timelier. The following blogs can be gritty, real and well written - we highly recommend them for your own reading, as well for our publishers.

Saudi Jeans

Rasheed’s World

Healing Iraq

*Asterism

The Wizard of Beirut

1 Too Many Peaches

Alien Memoirs

thesuperheavy

Sabbah’s Blog

Live from an Israeli bunker

Biking to Blog

Published by Beth on July 19, 2006 in General. 1 Comment

Tour de France is on! And so are blogs about cycling and the Tour on the Austin American-Statesman.

Austin is home to Lance Armstrong, but it’s also now home to the first publisher site to display syndicated blogs on this very popular and historic annual bike race.

BlogBurst blogs closely/daily covering the tour on the Statesman are:

Podium Cafe

Yellow-Jersey.net

We are continually pushing for more topic-focused/event specific blog coverage on publisher sites. Let us know what your favorite events are and where/how you think blogs that cover them might be of use for media sites.

Calling all Avatars!

Published by Beth on July 18, 2006 in General. 0 Comments

We’ve written posts on the BurstBlog about avatars a few times. We cannot stress enough how much it helps for you to have an image uploaded alongside your blog. It helps our editors more easily identify you, which can lead to better promotion of your blog to publisher sites. More importantly, avatars help publishers identify you when they proactively search through BlogBurst for blogs to add to their sites. They will more than likely pick the blog with the easily identifiable image. Here is an example of what the publishers or editors see when they do a blog search on BlogBurst. The orange square images represent blogs with no avatars that by default receive the BlogBurst member avatar:

avatars.JPG

Also, once up on the publisher site, a blog with an avatar will drive click thrus back to the blog because it makes the attribution more compelling to the user/reader.

Best way to provide a good avatar is to upload a square image in .jpg or .gif format - not a rectangular or oblong image - square is best. Our system automatically resizes images, so you should be fine in the size department. And, remember, if your first avatar didn’t take or you want to add a new one, you can always go back and do so. This goes for your profile and any other information you have previously added to our system. We’re flexible!

An example of a bad avatar:

bad avatar.bmp

Here is an example of a good/square avatar

BBavatar.jpg

Kentucky Fried Blog

Published by Beth on July 14, 2006 in Blog Industry News. 2 Comments

Here at BlogBurst, we focus a lot on the differences between traditional mainstream media and bloggers. We also focus on how to unite them for the benefit of both parties. We don’t think about government censorship - or accusations thereof, but according to a story by AP today - and the buzz in the blogosphere- Kentucky state rep. Kathy Stein (D-Lexington) is introducing legislation to halt efforts by the state’s Governor Ernie Fletcher to selectively block access to blogs and certain web sites.

Gov. Fletcher’s attempts to limit free access to certain blogs comes on the heels of his indictment for corruption, blogged about by Kentucky political blogger Mark Nickolas of bluegrassreport.org.

State employees were unable to access the blog after Nickolas’s posts on the indictment. Coincidence? Mark doesn’t think so. He is suing for his right to freedom of speech.

Looking on the brite side, the governor’s alleged actions demonstrate how influential blogs have become in mainstream society. And we’re just getting started…

BlogBurst travel blogger Rolf Potts of Vagablogging.net

Published by Beth on July 11, 2006 in Blogger Profiles. 0 Comments

With the success of your book Vagabonding and its companion site Vagablogging.net why did you create the blog site Vagablogging.net?

Vagablogging was originally set up as an online journal for my Vagabonding book-release tour in 2003. When the book tour was over, I continued to post travel quotes and advice. Eventually, Vagabonding readers rallied around the blog as a place to ponder and discuss independent travel issues, as well as travel literature.

The distinction of Vagablogging is that is has stayed true to the idea that travel is not a mere consumer experience, but an active part of one’s life, something that enables one to explore meaningful ideas as well as territory.

What is your philosophy regarding travel to ensure that the traveler gets the most out of his/her experience?

At the heart of my philosophy is the idea that time — not money or “things” — is the truest form of wealth in this life. Thus, I encourage people to make time for travel, to go slow, and to be open to all possibilities on the road.

What is your favorite place on earth?

I get this question a lot, but I can never answer it. I’m still discovering wonderful places. I can be equally happy in Chilean Patagonia, the Laotian highlands, a souk in Cairo, the 5th arrondissement of Paris, or on my farm in Kansas. It’s all a matter of the attitude that you take into a place.

Continue reading ‘BlogBurst travel blogger Rolf Potts of Vagablogging.net’

To comment or not to comment

Published by Beth on July 11, 2006 in Blog Industry News. 2 Comments

Tucson Citizen reports today that heated commentary on the political blog Protein Wisdom has lead to the resignation of a University of Arizona professor. Deborah Frisch, 44-year-old adjunct instructor of four years at UA made questionable comments on the blog by Colorado resident Jeff Goldstein that many believe were out of context and disturbing. The storm of response and reaction did not end with her resignation. See citizen journalism and open thought in action, as readers, including Goldstein, comment on the story right on the TC’s web site.

In a world where main stream/traditional media and blogging are mixing together more and more, we want to ask the bloggers out there, when can a poster/commenter go too far? And, should a blogger be accountable for comments made on his/her site?

FAQ: Login and Uploading Your Image

Published by Beth on July 6, 2006 in General. 4 Comments

Everyday, the BlogBurst team receives numerous different questions on blog set-up, feeds, avatars, etc. We are going to post our answers to the most popular questions or issues you’ve faced on a consistent basis. Here is a start!

Problem/Question: I can’t login, but I am using the right email address. Why?

You are probably dealing with a case sensitivity issue. If you signed up using this
example@MyBlogBurstEmail.com

But, try logging in without caps

example@myblogburstemail.com

it won’t allow you to login. Your email address must be exactly the same as when you created your BlogBurst account, caps included if need be.
Continue reading ‘FAQ: Login and Uploading Your Image’