Category Archive for ‘General’ at Burst Blog

Archive for the 'General' Category

Wall Street Journal Taps BlogBurst to Fuel the Retirement Debate

Published by Daysha on March 3, 2008 in BlogBurst Success Stories and General. 6 Comments

The BlogBurst editorial team is excited to announce that BlogBurst blogs have been selected by The Wall Street Journal to fuel a new site featuring content surrounding the retirement debate.

Retirementdebate.com, which launched on Monday, March 3rd, features news, business, finance, and political posts with a narrowed focus on retirement, social security, Medicare, baby boomer, and senior living issues.

Here are just a few examples of posts by BlogBurst network members that were placed on new WSJ Retirement Debate site:

Still Clickin: You Bet Your Life…Insurance

The New Business World: Declining Dollar, Pension Funds and Downward Business

Senior Housing Daily: Housing Market Decline Affecting Senior Housing?

Net News Publisher: Social Security Union Endorses Obama

Fascinated with Finance - for good reason

Published by Dock on February 27, 2008 in General. 3 Comments

Finance blogging is not boring.

You might not be interested in the economy, but I can assure you that the economy is interested in you. Finance and economy-relatied topics are, often as not, the story behind the story. Interested in Apple and all of its products? I can assure you that you’ll find something interesting about their story in the broader markets. Love your Google searches and applications? How about the high-quality food at Whole Foods? The blood-red excitement of Ducati motorcycles? These are all very interesting market stories, and the stories of the stocks behind these names (AAPL, GOOG, WFMI, DMH respectively) are equally interesting - in some cases more so. Do a quick news search for any of these names and you’ll see what I mean.

However, there is a much more pertinent reason to start to get your head around the markets. It involves your retirement - or your potential lack thereof. General sentiment among political figures (across both sides of the aisle) suggests that Social Security will likely not be around for the internet generation - at least as we know it. We will instead, in all likelihood, have to provide for our own retirement (or at the very least, supplement it ourselves) as best we can. As a general rule, even if your idea of investing is a generous donation to the Bank of Sealy or the Bank of Serta once in a while, you still have the corrosive efffect of inflation to deal with. That stash of cash will decrease in purchasing power over time - often in a much more serious way than you can conceive of. It wouldn’t hurt to put your money to work for you in some kind of market vehicle that you understand, if only to be able to fight the effects of inflation.

To do that, however, it behooves you to understand what you’re doing and there is no shortage of internet sites and blogs that can help you do just that.

Shifting gears here for a moment - let’s say you’re a finance blogger. I know that the above notes are not news to you, and that you might find them to be so basic as to be almost irrelevant. You’d rather talk about Forex trades or Iron Condors or cup-and-handles. However, I want you to think for just a bit about how you can serve a broader audience - the millions of people who genuinely need your guidance in figuring out market basics. If you could, spend some time talking about the basics of such topics as inflation. Talk about how money origination is really debt origination. Talk about the corrosive effects of inflation on purchasing power. Talk about the different types of price indexes (producer, consumer) and what’s included - and what’s not. Talk about the things that you think every person should know about the markets that surround and affect them.

I think your audiences will grow for it, and I know they’ll benefit from it.

Tips and tweaks for a better blog

Published by Dock on February 9, 2008 in General. 15 Comments

Hi everybody-

I know that as a blogger, you’re busy searching out the best information you can, in order to bring your readers (and our publishers) the most authoritative information possible. However, I would like to ask that you check on a few things that will make life easier for the Blogburst editors, and perhaps yield benefits for your readers.

Archive!

It surprises me how many blogs I see that don’t have visible archives available from the front page. I have a specific need to find archives quickly - but I have no doubt that your blog’s readership would also appreciate the ability to get to all your previous posts in an easy way. Speaking simply as a reader, if there’s a blog I really like, I’ll read the entire blog beginning with its first post, and proceed in chronological order. Visible archives make this possible.

Most blog platforms give you the ability to display archives in the sidebar - usually as a list, graduated monthly. I find those to be the most effective. There’s also the calendar-style ones, which I don’t find to be as handy - but anything beats paging through “previous post” links alone. Please consider activating your archive widget in your sidebar, if you haven’t already.

Full Feeds

Much has been written on the philosophies and strategies behind partial feeds versus full feeds (here’s one small sample) but in Blogburst, we do need your full feeds. I have, in the past, seen major blog platforms flip everyone back to partial post output upon making platform-wide software upgrades. So, if you proceed with a software upgrade in your blog’s software (or your blog’s provider does it for you) I’d ask you to please check your settings and see if you still have a full feed output.

Be the main attraction

Think about your favorite blogs for just a second. Hold them in your mind. I’m willing to bet that these blogs that you’re holding in your mind right now are strong, and memorable, because of the strong voice of the blogger - the color and life that they breathe into the facts that they gathered for your perusal. I’m also willing to bet that they do not simply give you a link to someone else’s story, with a throwaway paragraph attached that simply describes what the story links to.

I realize that it requires much more effort to create your own voice, but I would encourage you to try. I truly believe that the “authority blogging” path is the most rewarding way to go, and your readers will certainly appreciate it. Is it hard? Well, it does take more effort, and you might not be good at it right away. However, most things worth doing take effort - and as my voice teacher used to say, “You don’t get better at singing by not singing!” This goes for “authority blogging” too.

Thanks!

Wordpress has upgraded - have you?

Published by Dock on February 9, 2008 in Blog Tools & Technology and General. 6 Comments

Looks like Wordpress has upgraded their platform again - 2.3.3 is available. As this is a “point release” (2.3.2 to 2.3.3) then this release is meant to fix bugs, and security issues in particular.

Wordpress has this to say about it:

WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs.

You can find more information about the upgrade at the Wordpress download site for your convenience.

If you’re curious as to the benefits of upgrading (or the pitfalls of not upgrading) you can find that at the Blogger Resource Center.

A Monday thank-you to our bloggers

Published by Dock on February 8, 2008 in Blogger Profiles and General. 0 Comments

Let’s kick off the week with some praise.

“I joined BlogBurst about a year back. I had a personal email exchange with one of their founders who invited me to add my blogs on their network. Now this isn’t one of those online syndication services but instead a service that attempts to bridge the gap between mainstream media and the blogosphere. Both these mediums have often been labeled as being in direct conflict with each other although it never was true. I have always believed that the mainstream media and the blogosphere work symbiotically often filling the information gaps that each medium individually can never close.” - Patrix

All very good points from iPatrix, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly - and yes, our company is still small enough (and close-knit enough) that our founder and executives are deeply involved in the company, both internally and externally. Yep, you can talk to the top dog here, no problem.

Also a shout-out to Chuck Butcher III for his positive experience getting a leg up onto Reuters with his article. How cool is that? It’s very cool, and very do-able. If you’re politically active (as Chuck certainly is) Blogburst can provide a valuable leg-up to generate wider exposure, and that’s the name of the game.

We are of course grateful for the positive mentions, and also glad that we can provide a noteworthy service that people find useful and helpful. It’s all about bringing your blogs up front!

Chicken littles, or sunshine supermen?

Published by Beth on February 8, 2008 in General. 0 Comments

I realize that there remains a bifurcation of opinion on the ultimate usefulness of blogs. Bloggers see themselves as free from the shackles of potential gatekeeping, allowing them to remain more timely, relevant, and nimble than, say, print - while anti-bloggers still see blogs as upstart mavericks who are crashing the party with wild abandon and a lack of journalistic standards.

The reality of blogging as a source of timely, useful information has been solidified, in my mind, by the housing bubble blogs in particular. For years, these bloggers have been warning of a growing bubble in the real estate markets both regionally and nationally. The criticism for these opinions was unrelenting and harsh at first (generally from the industries whose reputations were taking a solid whacking) but reality is reality. As the numbers have rolled in, the mood of the nation has turned inexorably to agree with the bloggers. These housing blogs have been well ahead of the information curve for years, and as the reality of the housing, credit, liquidity, and confidence crises began to set in, it became clear that, far from being chicken littles, these bloggers really did have their fingers on the ever-weakening pulse of the housing market (and by implication, the wider markets and overall economy.)

I first got turned on to this subset of blogs around a year ago by Seth Jayson of The Motley Fool fame. Seth is one of the more forthcoming of the writers over there, and isn’t known to pull punches - always a plus in my book. He expressed admiration for one blog in particular - http://housingpanic.blogspot.com - which really lived up to Seth’s general praise. I found the blog to be fairly over the top in delivery, but hugely entertaining… and all the while the predictions set forth on the blog were coming to pass, like clockwork. The blogger, known only as “Keith” (represented hilariously in avatar by the infamous Pets.com sock puppet) started the blog in late 2005 and has remained diligent about posting frequently, keeping his topical focus, remaining timely, and sticking to his thesis - staying over the top and entertaining at the same time. To my mind, this blog is “The Beatles” of blogs - irreverent, entertaining, fun and also capable of being taken very seriously - recently, serious journalists like Diana Olick have done interviews with Keith because of his tenacity and style, as well as his accuracy.

Keith got it right when so many of the top names got it wrong (and some still do so!) It’s a bittersweet victory when being correct also means financial disaster for the country looms - but this underscores the kind of awareness that a dedicated blogger can bring forth.

HousingPANIC! (or “HP” as it is also known) is not a member of the Blogburst network, but one of it’s excellent peers (Housing Wire) certainly is, and there you’ll find a somewhat more measured and analytical approach to the same topics that Keith covers - and as you would expect in the blogosphere, there is a certain synergistic effect shared among the housing blogs that gives them strength as a topic sector. So there’s a little bit of HP in Housing Wire, and vice versa.

Housing blogs of this type, to me, are the clearest evidence that sunshine is the best antiseptic, and that the tenacious, nimble outsider status of bloggers can bring relevant information to light in a way that other media simply aren’t able to do. I personally am very grateful for this, and am glad to be a part of Blogburst where I can help bring voices like these to the forefront of mainstream media.

- J. Dock Myrick II

Life Cycle of a Blog Post

Published by Tim on January 31, 2008 in General. 1 Comment

Wired has an interesting interactive infographic that looks at all the forces that act upon your blog post in one way or another. There’s you, the blogger; search engines; ad servers; social bookmarks; and several other players, including even the spam blogs who steal your stuff.

Bloggers and Journalists form an uneasy alliance

Published by Tina on January 22, 2008 in Blog Industry News and General. 5 Comments

A new survey of US journalists found that nearly 70% check a blog list on a regular basis and the majority of journalists surveyed said blogs were having a significant impact on news reporting in all areas tested except news quality.

Perhaps I’m biased, but that sounds a little disingenuous given that three-fourths of those surveyed cited blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.

Check the Center for Media Research for the full story and more stats.

Blog Titles: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Published by Daysha on January 4, 2008 in Blog Writing and General. 4 Comments

The great thing about blogging is the freedom that comes with it. Depending on what you blog about, you develop a specific audience that is keenly interested in what you have to say. One of the best reasons to join BlogBurst is to expand your readership and drive more traffic back to your site. Once your blog is featured on a publisher’s site, readers can click on your blog link or byline to click back to your site.

But just what hooks the reader (aside from your brilliant post)?

The title of your post, of course

A well-written title can mean the difference between readers losing your headline in the busy content on publisher pages and enticing the reader to click through, exposing them to your post and your blog. A great title is the starting point that just might turn a new reader into an avid fan of your blog. Keep it succinct, give it some punch and help draw the reader in to all your blog has to offer.

Check out a few of these title comparisions:
The Bad vs. The Good

Bad: “Happy New Year!!!”
Good: “Welcome to the New Year: Kathryn’s Fashion Predictions”

Bad: “Weekly Book Review”
Good: “Book Review: How The Dead Dream by Lydia Millet”

Bad: “How to Dress Fashionably”
Good: “10 Ways to Blend Hipster Chic With Classic AND Trend Pieces!“

Bad: “The [Blog Name’s] Top 10 List”
Good: “Bye Bye Microprints! (And 9 More Trends We’re Happy to Leave in 2007)”

Bad: “Breaking News”
Good: “Iowa Caucus: Prognostications, Results and Breaking News“

Bad: “News Roundup”
Good: “Yer’ Drug War Roundup”

Bad: “Blog Carnival”
Good: “Carnival of Financial Goals #2 - A Walk With Sam”

Bad: “Links for the Day”
Good: “Daily Links: Moses to Sandy Koufax”

Bad: “Month/Year in Review”
Good: “Year in Review: Best Homebuilding Products of 2007″

The Ugly

“Untitled Entry” - No explanation necessary. Always title your posts.

“–==Mu$IK C0Ncert ReVieW$==–” - There was once a time when Internet users placed punctuation marks before their screen names in order to move their name to the top of instant messaging and directory lists. The trend later evolved into using multiple punctuation marks and crazy capitalization as a form of artistic expression. For me, I can think of no better expression than a well formulated post that presents a unique point of view and is creative in nature. Aside from looking bad, wacky formatting can also trigger dirty word filters that prevent publishers from using your content.

Unnecessary profanity - When using profanity in your post, ask yourself if it is really necessary. Can you emphasize your point without it? Profanity, regardless of whether it is spelled out correctly, abbreviated, or has characters replaced with punctuation, triggers a filter that prevents your posts from being picked-up by publishers.

A Look Back at 2007

Published by Tina on December 30, 2007 in General. 4 Comments

It’s that time of the year when you discover little wads of credit card receipts in your pockets and all of your self-imposed deadlines are “after the new year.” Along with the end of the year, comes that weird, anxious feeling you get when you contemplate where did the time go?

I thought I’d call-out some of the more memorable stories and events in the blogosphere and ask you to do the same.

The event actually happened in 2006 (December 30^th) but Sadaam Hussein’s execution was still a major story when we rang in 2007.

Sadaam Hussein Executed (The Carpetbagger Report)

The Dead Dictator: Sadaam Hussein (Wake Up America)

The Indianapolis Colts won the Superbowl

Superbowl XLI: Colts 29 Bears 17 (Stampede Blue)

While March Madness failed to produce a true Cinderella team, the Florida Gators successfully defended their championship.

Random Thoughts on the Ohio State Game (Alligator Army)

On April 16th, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students on the Virginia Tech Campus (and wounded many more) before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. History.

Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech (Poliblogger)

The Virginia Tech Massacre (GNIF Brain Blogger)

What do we tell our children about Virginia Tech? (Britannica Blog)

Sports figures loomed large in 2007 with controversial slugger Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s longstanding home run record.

Over and Out: Bonds blasts #756, passes Aaron (Best Ever Sports Talk)

Michael Vick engaged in a pastime that cost him both his job and his freedom.

The Quick Landing and Hard Plummet of Michael Vick (The Curly R)

More time than I like to admit was spent following the adventures of Paris going to jail, Lindsey going to rehab (a couple of times) and Britney, well Britney…well you know….

Oh. No. She. Dinnit. (or) Britney Shaved Her Damn Head ( A Socialite’s Life)

Harry Potter mania set-in over the summer with a film release and the last installment (say it isn’t so) of J.K. Rowling’s mega-popular series.

Farewell, Harry Potter Series (In Perspective)

While politicians, Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez decided to exit the limelight…

Karl Rove (The Legacy of Karl Rove) (Political Realm)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez resigns (No More Spin)

Senator Larry Craig found himself thrust center stage.

Better Explanations Please (The Carpetbagger Report)

Mac’s innovative iPhone was the “must have” item for geeks and trend setters.

Most iPhone users thrilled but a few iRate ( Reuters)

No look back at 2007 would be complete without taking a moment to remember those we lost:

Anna Nicole Smith, RIP (PopSugar)