If you thought of posting holiday gift ideas on what to give that special person in your life - or maybe just your boss - than post away on your blog, and we will try to add your post to our Holiday Gift Guide package we are promoting to our publishers (*please note: we are in pitching stages of this post offering to our publishers.)
The great thing about this constantly updated package of blog posts (also known as a BurstWire) is that it’s not limited by topic area. So, whether you usually write about technology, health, parenting or swimming….your holiday idea could make for a great syndicated post.
Some tips on holiday gift blog posts we like:
- Post an idea with a comparison to another product
- Do not post a product that makes it look as if you are trying to sell the product outright
You can see the Holiday Gift Guide BurstWire on the Pluck home page now.
Turns out, blogging may be a great way for students to organize their thoughts. Last year, a teacher in Liberty, Mo. started giving his students a reading assignment that in-turn also involved blogging about the book. Now students, and authors of assigned reading are interacting on student-created blogs and contributing meaningful discussions.
The teacher, Eric Langhorst says the blog has been a great way to get quieter students more involved in the class. “It gives them a chance to voice their opinion, even if they’re not a kid who raises their hand a lot.”Â
Will Richardson, author of “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom,” says students can improve their reasoning skills, as well as their writing, if they are given the opportunity to think about and respond to topics on their own time, in their own way.
That’s just too cool for school.
We got a little creative at the Pluck - BlogBurst headquarters the other day. Please will you, enjoy our two haikus for the holidays [ed. note: Someone’s been in the eggnog a little early.]
Haiku #1
Log in? So last year.
No BlogBurst log in button?
We call it a “workbench.”
Haiku #2
BlogBurst excites you!
Just started your blog, did you?
You have been deferred.
USA Today has begun syndicating BlogBurst tech blogs to its Technology section and on Kevin Maney’s Technology column section of its site. The use of BlogBurst on both sections is stellar - quite prominent. USA Today gets millions of hits a day and the Tech section is one of its featured sections, so this is a big coup for bloggers!
We are really excited to tell you our great news! I mean….really, really excited because this is a great time to be a blogger! In a strategic alliance with Reuters, one of the largest providers of syndicated news worldwide, BlogBurst is going bigger! Reuters itself is syndicating BlogBurst network blogs to various sections of its site (Technology, Health, Entertainment)…but the best part (drumroll, please…) - this alliance means that Reuters will bring BlogBurst to its 3,000 media customers and web sites around the world. For more information on Pluck’s relationship with Reuters, please read the press release.
The potential for greater exposure and greater use of BlogBurst blogs is enormous. This is why we are really, really, really excited. On Reuters alone, we are now recording roughly one million headline impressions a day - and in plain English…that means on average, one million eyes have looked at our BlogBurst blog headlines on any given day. Post views of blog posts have more than doubled since Reuters started syndicating.
Reuters has invested in Pluck as part of our strategic initiatives together, which means that they will be around for some time to come.
Hi there! Eric again!
I touched on 3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network earlier today, and I wanted to touch on 3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum in our network.
First let me start off with saying that you are all great bloggers, you all have good communities and conversations and a wealth of knowledge and insight. You have all done well in attracting readers from the ether. This service can just help you extend that reach, and to really capitalize on it you need to (slightly) expand upon your notion of audience. You are trying to attract readers that are more mainstream than your previously tech-savvy audience.
3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum
1. Topical clarity and focus. Most of our current implementations live at a sectional level within our partner sites, so a blog that is clearly about gardening is much more likely to be picked up than a blog with a few gardening posts mixed in with posts about other diverse subjects. This need for clarity becomes even more pronounced as we move on with more article page inclusions.
2. Posting Frequency. We want to make sure that new topics of interest are being covered, so higher posting frequency generally indicates that you’re more likely to engage in the conversation on new topics sooner.
3. Headlines. In all cases BlogBurst widgets start off with your most recent headline, and in most cases a short abstract of your post – the more engaging your headlines are, the more likely you are to attract readers to your point of view.
Hello All,
Eric Roach, your friendly blog recruiter here. For today’s post(s) I was hoping to pull off a trifecta of three important things:
3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network
3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum
3 great bands that I play in (Come to Austin — see me play!)
Unfortunately, the big boss only wants me to do the first two, so here goes with Part 1:
3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network
1. Categorization. Being at the juncture of citizen media and mainstream media we face a lot of challenges with categorization - the way a blogger describes their blog, and the way we may naturally categorize their blog does not necessarily line up with what a publisher’s site might have available in terms of placing blogs. We are constantly revising the way we categorize the blogs in our system so that we can better reflect the nature of our blogs and adapt them for our publisher’s sites.
2. Blog Audits. Every quarter we at Pluck review every single blog in our system multiple times to make certain that it is properly categorized, and also with the goal of creating better offerings for our publishers.
3. Working With Publishers. We have many meetings every week with our publishing partners. It is our goal in these meetings to help educate them about the great blogs in our system and work with them on ways to better fit within their sectional, article driven, and innovative needs.
Great suggestion from one of our bloggers (Thank you C.M.). Leaderboard tracking is already in place for all bloggers in BlogBurst, regardless of your geo. While we have work in front us to navigate through the waters of international payments & tax issues, we are committing that we will track rewards for non-US bloggers and will pay them for Q4. The only catch is that the rewards payment may be delayed past the planned pay out date in January if you are outside the US. We will communicate our progress in this area so everyone knows what to expect, but know that we are working through this and sincerely hope to make this work without any delays.
We are proud to announce the launch of the BlogBurst Rewards Program! The Rewards Program adds financial compensation to the long list of BlogBurst benefits for participating bloggers. You can find details about the Rewards Program here. The short version is that we are using a leaderboard-based rewards model that is easy to understand and directly tied to performance. There are some rules for participating in the program so be sure to read the FAQ for details.
With the BlogBurst Rewards Program in effect, top bloggers on the leaderboard can make thousands of dollars during the course of year. This program will continue to grow as the service achieves new levels of success now that we are out of beta status. Stay tuned for announcements around new publishers, new partners and new exposure opportunities to bring your blog to mainstream audiences around the world.
Sincerely,
The BlogBurst team at Pluck
Recently, we surveyed more than 600 bloggers, most of whom came right out of the BlogBurst network, to better understand their feelings about syndication and their blogging motivation. You can see the results of our survey of more than 590 BlogBurst bloggers here:
Here are the highlights:
- #1 reason for blogging: To inform and entertain (40.5%)
- 45% make $0/month, 80% make less than $100/month
- Reasons for participating in a syndication network, in reported priority order
- Referral Traffic
- Exposure
- Compensation
We are really grateful to all of you who took the time to answer our survey questions and help us better understand your motivations and needs as bloggers. The survey is now closed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t contribute your opinions to this blog for us to see and read. We more than welcome your feedback on why you blog!
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