We caught up with Lucien Burm, founder of Kimengi, which has created an interesting new tool for bloggers called feedforward (see demo). Here’s the interview.

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1. How do you explain what feedforward and Kimengi do to people who have never heard of them before?

The first thing I say is that we create a more lateral web, but most of times I need to explain two things first: recommendations and widgets.

Everyone knows about recommendations that webshops provide, such as ‘people bought this, also bought…’. So at first I explain to people that this is the functionality we provide. Then I talk about our widget as a very smart website within a website that can create the same kind of recommendations on your blog/title and even better. It is better because all widgets on all participating sites can work together creating cross-site recommendations. And then, the recommendations are not only based on what other people liked, we look into context too.

Finally, I explain that the widgets working together enable you to create your own dynamic blog network and start to create preferred recommendations between the members of your network. I sum it up as a widget based recommendation network using social and semantic technologies enabling a more lateral web, which means that surfing the web becomes a flow of socially and/or semantically arranged content.

As an important encore, I’ll try to make people see that calculating recommendations on a network scale is something that the usual algorithms cannot do without loss of realtime quality. So we are working on a whole new kind of recommendation engine as well. It is something that we don’t talk a lot about yet.

2. Where are your team members located?

Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It’s that little European lowland country with a history of invention, trade and exploring the world. In fact, just last month we were celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch hitting Manhattan on their west-bound quest to Indonesia. Amsterdam nowadays is still the capital of our international corporate orientation and not surprisingly brimming with internet startups at the moment. We have a lovely office with a distinct wall paper and canal view. You should come and visit if you have the chance.

3. What tools do you use regularly to help you develop and promote your widget?

Our technological environment is mainly java applications that spawn smart javascript applications that spawn html. It makes for a very versatile widget platform that offers a lot of flexibility and few limitations. And all of that runs on Amazon Webservices, which is great for a growing a network of course. At this point we are still somewhat passive in promoting and like to have it grow organically for a while. We do reach out to blogs now and contact them directly if we feel they fit the network and ask if they would like to try it out and write about their experiences, but we are mainly trying to work out the best way to have the widget promote itself because of its main qualities. Though the widget is open to anyone and free for use, we still check for unsuitable or pure commercial content and filter that out. We don´t want this kind of content to mix with the quality stories that bloggers and publishers provide.

4. What has been the biggest challenge to you so far in trying to grow your company?

What we found most difficult is to explain the many options that f»dforward provides. We try to narrow it down now. The most hidden one so far is the ability to create your own recommendation networks. We are trying to bring that forward. Creating networks will increase not only traffic to your site, but it will also provide you with more insight about your audience through our unmatched social analytics. We can help you become a better blogger and make your blog more successful in general.

5. Can you think of a crowning moment of victory that you’ve experienced over the past few months?

There are some crowning moments I can´t talk about yet, but when we first started to test our social analytics this summer we were stunned by the click through rates of some recommendations. They are way above your average Ad CTR´s. And with the data on your best recommendations and the best recommendations of others (in your network and outside), we might be able to just show you in any given timeframe what to write about or what angle to use to improve your readership right now.

One of the first things we noticed was that the main news is not always a smart thing to write about in the sense of being it a good recommendation. Different angles on any current topic that provide interesting insights are apparently more attractive to people than the main news. News seems to be very personal in the end.

6. How does your product help the person who uses it – what’s in it for them?

I assume you are referring to readers this time. We want to help improve two kinds of reading and they are probably interwoven usages:

• 1. having an interesting, up-to-date read and
• 2. researching some more about a given topic.

f»dforward is all about following people around the web. So for the first usage, you can follow people that (have) read about the same topics as you. For the second usage, you can follow people around who might be an expert on the current topic you are reading about. So f»dforward recommends articles as well as people to you, based on both social and semantic technologies. With a growing network, we believe that with f»dforward, you will get what suits you (now) from the web. And that is what it is all about, optimizing your web experience: Creating a more lateral web that can give you a personal, linear experience of the current web. The best web experience, we think, is a flow of properly tuned information.

7. How is feedforward unique?

Most importantly, f»dforward is unique because it recommends both people and content and secondly it makes a new kind of web out of the social, semantic and read/write web hopefully providing the fabric for a more lateral web.

8. What kinds of partnerships with other business or organizations are you guys trying to create?

At this point we are looking for blogs and publishers that add to the network and expand it in a quality way. Secondly we are about to test with some corporate sites to see how we can provide companies with great insights about their products audience and thirdly we talk to online retailers that are interested in creating a smarter affiliate network for example.

9. What’s your revenue model?

We now focus on providing some launching professional publishers and companies those ‘unmatched’ social analytics.

10. Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Yes – you, reader, please try out f»dforward and let us know what you think. We are deep in the process of improvement and getting it right, so we would like to know what works for you and what doesn’t and how else we can help improve your blogs and titles and general web experience.

Thanks again to Lucien Burm for providing these details on feedforward.

Have you tried feedforward?

The post feedforward: New Blog Traffic Driver? Lucien Burm Believes So appeared first on The Blog Herald.

1. Get traffic

2. Convert it

“Convert it” means “get people to do what you want them to do,” which is usually clicking an ad, subscribing to your blog/newsletter, or buying something. (Or linking to your blog, or telling their grandma how awesome you are, etc.)

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you probably have a fairly constant stream of traffic flowing to your blog from one or more sources – search engines, social networking websites, online directories, and so forth.

But are you converting it as well as you can?

Here are 5 simple tweaks you can make to your blog’s design or layout to make your conversion rates better. I can’t guarantee that they’ll work, but they’re among the most likely things I’ve come across, and they’re generally quick to try.

1. Color scheme

Sometimes the colors on your blog are turning visitors off to your offers. What matters isn’t what looks good to you, but rather what people respond well to.

For example, I once saw a business blog with a purple and green scheme. It was colorful, sure, and vibrant, but to me it conjured up Barney the Dinosaur. I urged the blogger to change the purple or the green, and they went to a blue and green look. I’m pretty sure conversion rates improved after that.

2. White space

Usually what you need to do is increase, not decrease, the amount of “white space” (empty space) between certain elements – especially between your key offers and whatever immediately preceds and follows them. Don’t overdo it, but remember that when there’s too much content crowded together, people tend to skip it all and head down to a white space for relief.

3. Above the fold

Before someone who visits your blog even scrolls down on the page, they need to see your key conversion opportunities very, very prominently and easily. Don’t hide those things way down on the page. Have them appear up high and, as much as possible, in line with what your visitors would logically think. For example, subscription options are best displayed near the upper left and/or upper right corner. Make sure you know what screen resolutions your visitors are using for the most part, so you can adjust your “above the fold” experience accordingly.

4. Post footer

When people read your blog posts, their eyes move down the left-hand side of the content column and rest for a moment at the bottom of the post content. Right then and there is where you need to make sure your key offer – buy this thing, subscribe now, whatever it is – appears boldly and beautifully in front of them. Don’t be annoying, but don’t be shy, either. If they liked the post, they won’t be offended by your invitation to convert on something.

5. Speed page loads

Mainly, this means getting rid of clutter, especially in your code and in the number of widgets and scripts you’re calling up every time a URL loads on your blog. If you don’t need something in order to achieve maximum conversion likelihood, get rid of it. The time to do that is yesterday.

How many times do people leave your blog without doing what you wish because they’re tired of waiting for a page or a video or a widget to load?

What Else is There?

This is just the beginning, and I’m sure you’ve discovered tweaks along the way that you could share below. Won’t you help us all out? What have you learned that can be a quick design/layout fix for other bloggers to make their conversion rates jump up a bit?

The post 5 Design Tweaks to Improve Your Blog Conversion Rates appeared first on The Blog Herald.

You know, to make a few extra bucks. (Or maybe just to make a difference in the world, I guess.)

As I’ve worked to develop and launch my own social media consulting service, I’ve seen and felt the good and bad of what goes into such a venture. Here are some of my ruminations – feel free to add yours below.

The Good: Membership Websites Can Make Mucho Dinero

That’s a lot of money, for you gringos out there. I have friends who earn a comfortable living through their own membership services, and in every case they either use a blog to drive member signups, watch the blogosphere closely for signs of changing trends and market interests, or both.

If you’re looking at all the different ways of making money through a blog, starting a membership has to be one of the most appealing at least in a few key ways:

• You can put a lot of eggs in a lot of different baskets. You don’t have to worry about and agonize over the possibility that if that one client flakes out on you, you’ll be up Help-Me Creek without a paddle to your name. Sure, people come and go all the time at a membership site – but if you have several dozen members paying you a little each month, it’s a very different feeling than if you’re a freelancer who relies on two or three big accounts to pay all of your bills, or if you’re a blogger who relies on the almighty page view and you only have the big G–gle to give you the bulk of your traffic (not a great strategy in most cases – been there, been part of a failed venture because of going that route).
• You can connect more deeply with people. Which means more return business for you than if you only did one-off jobs all the time. Plus there’s that little thing we call “feeling warm and fuzzy inside.”
• You can differentiate yourself more easily. How many blogs out there have ads on them? Right, 42 billion. Now, how many have their own branded members-only area? Not a whole lot (yet).
• Not expensive to set up. Okay, unless you have no clue what you’re doing. Been there, done that. :)

The Bad: Members-Only Blogs/Websites Can Drive You Completely Insane

Now this one I can’t say I have personal experience with – at least not to the extent that I’ve had to be locked away or put in a straitjacket. :) But certainly there have many sleepless nights. There have been many sleepless nights.

You’re always thinking about how to retain the members you have. You’re always worrying that you’ll lose too many to a competitor, or perhaps to a recession (*cough* 2008 *cough cough*). You’re always banging your head against a coding issue, or if you’ve got that part down, you’re always looking ravenously for new ways to improve your service for your members, introduce new levels of service, partner with others to enhance the whole offering, etc.

I was thinking of putting a “The Ugly” section down here, but nothing about my own experiences with membership site building has suggested that it’s not worth it, as long as you strive hard to do it the right way and you’re open to constant feedback and opportunities to improve and adapt to the winds of change.

What do you think?

Do you have a membership site? What do you think is the easiest way for a blogger to decide whether to try starting one?

The post Membership Services: Worth The Effort to Create and Develop? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Is this you?

Are you a grouchy blogger?

If you ever find yourself getting down in the dumps about your blogging, here are 10 simple tips on how to feel happier with your blog.

10 Ways to “Forget Your Troubles, C’mon, Get Happy” as a Blogger

1. Count your blogging blessings. Think for a minute – what has your blog brought to your life that you wouldn’t have had otherwise? What rewarding conversations and relationships have you enjoyed? Write a list of these puppies down and look at it when you’re getting Oscar the Grouchy.
2. Get Akismet. Or another spam comment destroyer like it. You’ll miss out on so much grouchiness it’s not funny. On second thought, maybe it is …
3. Vent. Far away from your blog. Get away from all keyboards. Get yourself alone. Look at the wall, a Winnie the Pooh doll, the mirror, whatever. Take a few minutes to gripe, gripe, gripe. Come on now, the real, “Boy, did I drink my pickle juice today or what?” stuff. Complain all you want … to yourself. Then be done with it.
4. Write your blogging worries and fears down. With your hand. On a piece of paper. Do whatever you want with it – stick it on your wall by your griping mirror, toss it into Oscar’s, er, your trash can – but at least dump those negative things out of your mind and body. And always remember: You matter.
5. Stop trying to be a perfect blogger. Give up now, while you still can. I promise you, you will never ever become an absolutely perfect blogger as long as you breathe the air of this green earth. Give up the quest for total perfection so you can embark on the quest for sheer excellence, mingled with some “gee, I’m human after all” mistakes.
6. Focus on people, not numbers. One of Oscar the Grouchy Blogger’s favorite pastimes is to hunker down in his dark garbage can and gaze frowningly upon his statistics. They’re just numbers to him, so even if they are growing, they don’t make him feel any happier. Look at the numbers that matter, of course – just keep in mind that a page view is a person’s page view, a comment is a person’s comment, and a backlink is a person’s backlink. (Okay, okay, so robots do some of that too. But that should only make you more happy about the people who do come to your blog and enjoy it.)
7. Take out someone else’s trash. Do something nice for another blogger in your field. Take a moment to quietly scratch their back. You’d be surprised how effective this is at making you forget about the grouchy gremlins dancing around the bonfire of your brain.
8. Think happy thoughts. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, etc. What makes you tick? Dwell on it for a little while. It’s the best way to battle writer’s block (blogger’s block), and it makes all that you do in your blogging become easier.
9. Waste some time. Crimanittly, I could get in trouble for this tip. But doesn’t worrying constantly about squeezing every last ounce of productivity and effeciency out of every last blogging minute make you feel, well … grouchy? Crotchety is another word for it, and that’s a yucky word for a couple of reasons. But getting back to the point – the point is, maybe what you need in order to cheer up is to just lollygag for a bit. If you’re not sure what to do, find a little kid and ask them. They’re full of ideas on this particular subject. Because wastefulness, in this sense, can sometimes be the most unwasteful thing of all.
10. Work harder than ever. One of the best ways to be a happier blogger is to fling yourself full speed ahead into the waves crashing upon your shores. Forget about your aches and pains. Just work, work, work. Get in the zone. You know that feeling when you snap out of it, and you look at the clock and you just spent several hours working your tail off and it felt like three seconds? That’s what happy blogging is like.

The Pursuit and Promise of Greater Blogging Happyness

Of course some of these suggestions seem to contradict each other. That’s part of the daily challenge of blogging, and of life as a whole. But as you try to follow these tips and latch onto whatever seems to work well for you, you’ll find yourself feeling happier and more satisfied in your blogging efforts.

And as that happens, you’ll find that you’re making others happier along the way, too.

Happy Blogging Resources

• Quiet the Thunder – How to Be a Happy Blogger in 7 Steps by Milena Thomas – My favorite tip from here: “Blogging is a refinement process.  You dump your thoughts, get feedback, and I think it is incredibly freeing.”
• How to Be a Happy Blogger by Geoff – Great tips from way back when (okay, 2006). My favorite? #14: “Do not leave the first comment on your own post, unless you have a split personality.”
• The Happy Seeker by Christopher Foster – I had the privilege of helping Chris create and launch this blog and I’ve found it to be quite inspiring.
• PBS Kids Games: Oscar’s Trash Collection – Try it out. You know you want to.

What makes you a happier blogger?

Please leave a comment below! Let’s talk about this list and see if we can improve it.

image: dan taylor

The post 10 Ways to Be a Happy Blogger appeared first on The Blog Herald.

1. Decide going in to the blog content creation effort that you will get something “done” in a certain amount of time.
2. Remove/destroy distractions, or remove yourself from their presence.
3. Emphasize focus and the task at hand – getting a great article or content chunk done ASAP.
4. Think about for whom you are writing or producing the content.
5. Think about what specific problem you will be solving through the content, or what question you will be answering.
6. Come up with a catchy headline.
7. Make sure the headline is clear and conveys a compelling promise of some benefit. (You don’t always have to do this, but it’s important as a general rule.)
8. Write, write, write – or record, record, record if audio/video, or snap, snap, snap if photos … just produce raw content. Don’t edit yet.
9. When you’ve spilled out all your ideas, go back and revise and organize. Do NOT overdo this part.
10. Now it should look at least semi-decent. Try to flesh out the content chunk by referring to related chunks among your own repositories (first) and elsewhere online or offline (second).
11. Check your timer – how long has it been? Always measure your publishing efforts. Figure out whether it’s initial composition or final editing/publication that’s slowing you down.
12. Ask for help if needed – if you get stuck, don’t hesitate to ask for help from trusted friends or even just passers-by who seem like they’d have a few good ideas.
13. Stop when you’re done and just publish the thing.

Got any tips to add?

The post How to Generate Good Blog Content Faster appeared first on The Blog Herald.

I’ve struggled for years to find the right metaphor for the relationship between blogs and other forms of social media. Here’s one of the best I could come up with so far. I invite you to share your own in the comments section below.

One Way to Visualize the Combination of Social Media and Blogging

A blog is the hub of a wagon wheel.

Other social media outposts are the spokes. Your wheel might have dozens of spokes – Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Flickr photostreams, and so on.

The rim of the wheel is the limit of your online influence. It’s a strange-looking wheel; some spokes are longer than others because you might have more influence via Twitter than Facebook, etc.

The wheel’s rotation is your ever-repeating cycle of social media use and self-evaluation, ideally leading you constantly uphill.

There’s at least one glaring problem with this metaphor. I don’t know how to make it work, but the picture in my mind shows a three-dimensional wheel, a sphere, in which the multitude of social media spokes connect not only to the central hub (the blog), but to each other.

Blogs and Social Media are More Blended than Ever

That’s a pretty convoluted wheel, don’t you think?

But it’s true. Here in 2009, blogs and the rest of social media have become so blended for many online content creators and consumers that it’s hard to tell where their hubs and spokes really are.

Brew is the new mashup. The Web is becoming a cloud. The lines are becoming blurs.

Consider the convergence of these varied means of expression, facilitated by the rapid advance of technology. Surely we’re moving quickly from wagon wheels to something more gelatinous, more smoothie-like.

Maybe the mixture of blogs and social media is really a frosty milkshake with bits of shredded candy drifting throughout.

That metaphor needs some work, but it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Why Does This Blending Mumbo-Jumbo Matter Anyway?

If you don’t “get” the ways in which blogs and other social media can be combined to make concoctions of staggering reach and power, you’re missing out on an incredible sight.

Thousands of companies and organizations are losing sleep and scrambling to and fro at this very moment, along with millions of individuals, to make sense of the alchemy embedded in the emerging Web. Whoever can turn ones and zeroes into gold can make tomorrow’s rules …

What is your personal blend of blogging and new media like? Oops, that’d be a simile.

photo by iboy_daniel

The post Blog and Social Media Blending: A Metaphor appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Please let us know what you think and what you would add – also what conferences you plan to attend! :)

The post Blogger Conference List Updated appeared first on The Blog Herald.

C’mon, we all know that’s you at the computer in the image above. :)

Okay, so you’re not a machine and you probably don’t have cool laser guns sticking out of your head.

… Speaking of, um, blogging …

Here are 18 of the most critical skills to success as a blogger, plus related articles. Use this list to help you decide which skill(s) to work on now.

Blog Publishing Skills

1. Coming up with blog post ideas

• Nothing to Blog About: Hit the Ideas File by Lorelle VanFossen
• Your Immediate, Unlimited Supply of Blog Post Ideas by Chris Garrett
• Where I Get Story Ideas by Jonathan Bailey

2. Planning your blogging activities

• How Are You Planning For Your Blog’s Future? by Lorelle VanFossen

3. Reading about blogging in order to get post ideas and improve your posts

• How to Read by Brian Clark

4. Editing published posts

• Cleaning Up Old Posts, The Gateway to Your Blog by Lorelle VanFossen
• SEO Tips: Increase PageRank by Revitalizing Your Old Posts by, you guessed it, Lorelle VanFossen :)

5. Writing posts

• How Long Does It Take You to Write a Blog Post? by Lorelle VanFossen
• Why Does a Blog Post Fail? by Lorelle VanFossen

6. Using blog publishing software

• Choosing a Blogging Platform by Melanie Nelson

7. Learning how to improve your blog publishing efforts

• Improve Blog Content: 29-Point Checklist by Easton Ellsworth

Blog Promotion Skills

8. Emailing people about your blog

• So How DO You Pitch a Blogger? by Mack Collier

9. Calling people about your blog

• The Ultimate Guide To Networking With Bloggers by Alex Shalman

10. Talking to people in person about your blog

• How To Talk So People Will Listen

11. Sharing your blog on social media websites

• Six ways to make people follow your blog and Twitter feed by Kevin O’Keefe

12. Making and publishing press releases about your blog

• Tips for Writing a Press Release

13. Learning how to improve your blog promotion efforts

• How to get traffic for your blog by Seth Godin
• 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic by Rand Fishkin

Blog Improvement Skills

14. Analyzing the traffic and search engine rankings of your blog

• Statistical Analysis of a Blog’s Traffic by Eric Rosenberg

15. Changing the design of your blog

• 30 Ways to Improve Readability by Michael Martin

16. Adding services to your blog

• Widgetbox

17. Recruiting or hiring other bloggers to contribute to your blog

• How to Recruit High Quality Guest Bloggers by Darren Rowse

18. Studying the process of blog improvement

• The Greatest Blogging Skill

I’m sure there are more skills that matter. I just wanted to list the ones I see as central to blogging success for most people.

What do you think? What would you add?

image: stephendann

The post 18 Core Blogging Skills You Can Always Improve appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Here are a few tips on how to ensure that it’s the right time to hit the “Publish” button on your latest blog article.

1. Create a post checklist … and use it every time. I have one that I keep pretty close to my chest, but it includes things like “check for broken links,” “search the Web for related resources to cite,” “check your sources,” “add clear calls to action if necessary,” and other such reminders. If you can check off every item on your personal posting checklist for a given article, you’re probably ready to publish the sucker.

2. Have someone else review your draft. This is a real forehead-slapper. But how often do you show your posts to friends or colleagues before you publish them? I’m not suggesting that you do this with every single post. But sometimes you will find this tip to be extremely helpful. You’ll be amazed at the feedback you get, and it can’t hurt to get an educated opinion and some helpful suggestions before releasing your offering into the wild.

3. Make sure the post is imperfect. This one may strike you as odd, but let me explain. There is always something you can improve about a blog post. Always. Add a paragraph, go with a different image, change a word choice, tweak the headline … the list goes on and on. But if you actually consciously take a moment to consider the fact that your about-to-be-broadcast post is not practically perfect in every way, and if you take an additional moment to choose to be okay with that fact, you’ll conquer that perennial stumbling block that so many bloggers trip over – the double-edged sword of perfectionism/procrastination.

4. Ask yourself, “If I never publish this, will someone suffer for it?” Will a day be darkened because your good humor goes unpublished? Will a mind starve out there because you refrain from shooting your carefully assembled bits of information out into the ether? In other words, what difference does this blog post make? If you think it stands a good chance of doing something, somewhere, for someone, then consider yourself almost almost ready to publish.

5. Publish. Sometimes I think you should make this tip #1, just so you keep the spontaneity alive. Yes, don’t just publish haphazardly. Don’t get all trigger-happy. But sometimes you’ll find yourself staring at a blinking cursor next to a considerable chunk of mental energy that you’re formed into a decent article, and the best thing to do is not to go back to the old, “Gee, what could I add to this? What could I change?” rut. Sometimes the best thing to do is not to teeter to the edge of the diving board only to peer timidly down and wonder what will happen when your epidermis smacks against the hydrogen and oxygen sloshing obliviously below.

Sometimes the best thing to do is just leap off that diving board and see what kind of splash you make.

What do you think?

The post How to Make Sure Your Blog Post is Ready for Publication appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Well, here are four of the simplest – but, wouldn’t you know it, also hardest – ways to promote your blog. See if one or more of these makes you slap your forehead and say, “Snap! I totally forgot about that.”

And then of course all you’ve got to do is do something about it. :)

In increasing order of forehead slappiness:

4. Pick up the phone. You’ve got one of those nearby, don’t you? Hey, you’ve probably got one in your pocket right now. Dial somebody’s number, wait till they answer, and say, “Hey, what’s up? Have you checked out my blog? It’s really cool, you might like it.” Embellish as desired. But seriously, nothing beats direct mouth-to-ear communication for spreading the word about a blog.

3. Put some pants on. And get out the door and go somewhere where you can apply the “hey, I can talk to people” concept from #4 above in a physical, offline setting. Repeat after me: “I need to tell that guy on the street corner with the sweet trumpet skills about my blog.” That, or the group of suits at your next business conference.

2. Blog about … your blog. This one is like, “ouch.” So easy to do, and yet so many bloggers fail to do it. For heaven’s sake, just put out a blog post every now and then (but not much more often than that) saying hi to your readers and letting them know what’s up. What you’ve been working on writing or recording or assembling for them, what that shiny new widget bling in the sidebar means to them, why you think they ought to subscribe to your blog updates by email or RSS, and especially, why they should pretty please (with sugar on top) tell their friends about your blog.

1. Be more valuable. Maybe — just maybe — your blog is tough to promote because it’s not really all that special. Don’t get me wrong – you as an individual are plenty special. But what do people really think when they see your blog and partake of its content? Does it jar them awake at 3 AM because they can’t shake the sweet awesomeness? Or does it fade within a tenth of a second into the rest of the ginormous ocean of constantly churning content in their brains? When was the last time you sat and just meditated for a few minutes on what you could do to make your blog more irresistible, more addictive, more magical, more incredible – in short, more promotable?

Hope these get your bloggity brain going. Any other forehead-slapping ideas on how to get your blog out there more prominently?

image credit: Russell D Egan

The post Back to Basics: 4 Forehead-Slapping Blog Promotion Methods appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Which probably would mean that you’re also at least vaguely interested in what the blogosphere has to say about the iPhone and what some of the highest-quality blogs are that talk about it regularly.

Here are seven of them. Please add your favorites in the comments.

1. iPhone Buzz
2. MacRumors
3. The iPhone Blog – How’s that for a name?
4. iPhone Hacks
5. Top iPhone News
6. iPhones Talk – not “iPhone Stalk”
7. Fast Company

Are you reading this blog on an iPhone? :)

image credit: The Pug Father

The post iPhone Blogs: 7 of the Best to Follow appeared first on The Blog Herald.

It’s the Blog Conferences page, and while it’s very much a work in progress, we present it to you with the invitation to help us make it the best list anywhere (and map, and calendar) of upcoming conferences and events for bloggers.

There’s a 2009 blogging conferences map that lets you look at the locations of offline events, as well as a calendar that lets you see when each event is taking place.

And of course we’ve got an itemized list, chronologically sorted, of this year’s planned blogger meetups (BlogWorld,BlogHer, Web 2.0 Summit, etc.).

Well, what are you waiting for? Head on over to our new blogger conference list and let us know if there’s any information you’d like to add!

The post Blogger Conference Calendar 2009 Now Live at TBH appeared first on The Blog Herald.

As the G20 Summit convenes today in London, many bloggers across the world may be wondering what they can do to bring about change in the offline world through social media.

As a community outreach coordinator for BloggersUnite.org and a veteran of the Blog Action Day 2008 organizing team, I can personally attest to the colossal power that blogs and social media tools have to spread ideas and change human minds.

I asked BloggersUnite.org’s Richard Becker and Antony Berkman about their attempts to inspire social action by harnessing the power of the blogosphere. Here’s what they said.

How did Bloggers Unite start? Whose idea was it?

Antony Berkman, CEO, BloggersUnite.org: I noticed that Internet social networks from MySpace to Facebook were receiving a ton of media and Internet attention in 2007, but we had yet to see an online social community come together to raise funds for a good cause. So, I saw what would later become Bloggers Unite as an opportunity to empower and recognize bloggers who collectively focus their blogs for good rather than writing about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears all the time.

Why did you move Bloggers Unite from BlogCatalog.com to its own domain?

Antony Berkman: We listened to the BlogCatalog members. Over the last two years, some bloggers wanted us to coordinate more events and some wanted less. To meet the needs of both, we opened up Bloggers Unite on its own network so that anyone to develop and promote their own event while allowing non-bloggers an opportunity to do good as well. At the same time, we’re still going to coordinate three BlogCatalog member-driven events every year on BloggersUnite and BlogCatalog.

What does Bloggers Unite have to offer bloggers?

Richard Becker, consultant, BloggersUnite.org: The majority of social media is structured around people having an opportunity to meet people with similar passions and interests. Bloggers Unite works because helps bloggers find other bloggers with a similar interests in specific social causes, and introduces them to new readers at the same time. Since the very first initiative, we’ve also built in recognition opportunities that range from highlighting select posts to being featured by major media. The entire program promotes bloggers as good people with good intentions, which wasn’t a popular view when the initiative first started.

Why do non-profit organizations such as Amnesty International USA, Charity Navigator and Heifer International find Bloggers Unite useful?

Richard: For nonprofits, Bloggers Unite helps them promote their specific event while gaining exposure from people who already care very deeply about the social awareness issues they support. There are many bloggers who have specific interests in social awareness issues; they’re always looking for new ways to help.

Before the launch of the site, we asked BlogCatalog members and Twitter participants to submit several local events that we could include on the site. Part of the goal was to demonstrate that we could promote social awareness globally while bloggers could take action locally. One great example is Aid for AIDS of Nevada, which is hosting an AIDS Walk on April 19. Since the local event was listed, several bloggers committed to write about the event because they care about HIV/AIDS. Some of their readers reside in Las Vegas, and have since enrolled in the event.

What has been your greatest challenge facing Bloggers Unite thus far?

Antony: The greatest challenge has always been turning nonprofits away because we felt it was important that BlogCatalog members chose the campaigns that they want to support. I wish I could support everyone at the same level we’ve supported Amnesty International and AIDS.gov. Of course, that was our other motivation for opening up Bloggers Unite to everyone. Thanks to Daniel and Oscar Tijerina, we don’t have to say no to anyone.

What’s your overall vision for Bloggers Unite and where do you see it a few years?

Richard: We see Bloggers Unite as becoming the premiere social network for social awareness, a social media-driven network where anyone help change the world for the better locally and globally.

What about social media venues besides blogs? Do you have any plans to branch out and have Bloggers Unite exist across multiple social media sites?

Richard: In many ways, it always has. You do not have to be a blogger to join Bloggers Unite. This was one of the advantages of evolving the initiative into becoming its own network. We recognized it as an important next step while working on the Bloggers Unite For Human Rights campaign. Working with Amnesty International, Oscar Tijerina developed a Facebook page that did remarkably well in attracting interest. Personally, I’ve always promoted Bloggers Unite, including specific bloggers who participate on Twitter.

What are some things bloggers can do using Bloggers Unite?

Richard: Bloggers can visit the site, search for topics that interest them, join the group, and submit a link to their post as soon as it’s complete. Depending on who is spearheading the event, Bloggers Unite also provides bloggers with resources, links, videos, and event/cause information that makes writing about and supporting the event easy.

What have been one of the greatest triumphs of Bloggers Unite so far?

Richard: While some people who have heard me talk about Bloggers Unite as a social media campaign might immediately think of the CNN coverage, the greatest triumphs happen on a much smaller scale, one person at a time. I’ve read comments on thousands of participating blogs where readers have personally shared how the post or campaign has personally touched their lives. I remember one comment specifically during Bloggers Unite Against Abuse where the courage of one blogger to share their story of abuse promoted one of their readers to seek help.

So, to answer your question, there are millions of triumphs that occur every day because of the campaign. You only have to look for them.

What advice do you have for bloggers looking to gather others around a social cause?

Richard: Contrary to what some social media experts think — that social media somehow spontaneously occurs — social media and online awareness campaigns do not happen by accident. It is very much like a rush of water.

Without a channel, it will make a puddle that doesn’t go anywhere. With too narrow of a channel, most of it spills over sides and goes nowhere. With just enough direction to capture the energy of the water and enough freedom that allows people to shine, social media is an amazing communication tool.

That said, bloggers who want to develop their own campaign or help a nonprofit will see the best results if they provide enough resources, but allow bloggers to write what they want about that subject. It’s the single most important lesson I’ve learned since working on these campaigns over the last two years.

Thanks to Richard Becker and Antony Berkman from Bloggers Unite for this enlightening interview. I love that last answer from Rich and agree completely that giving up control of the message is one of the most important things a non-profit can do when seeding viral or social media campaigns.

What do you think about the potential that blogs have versus traditional media to bring about lasting social change? Do you have any questions for Richard or Antony? Please share your ideas and questions below.

The post Blogging to Change the World: Insights from BloggersUnite.org appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Are these and other social media hangouts hurting or helping your blog?

No matter what your answer is, you must admit that blogs no longer dominate the social media landscape as they did in, say, 2006. While blogs still form the center of many companies’ social media marketing efforts, they’re now joined by a wide variety of other platforms and services.

2009: A Crossroads of Social Confluence

We stand at a crossroads of sorts. The online world is undergoing so much convergence that blogs and other so-called “social media” tools are becoming quite difficult to distinguish from each other.

We used to publish and discuss material at our blogs, reaching out on fledgling online social networks to find readers and approval. We still do that, but we now have more options and more reasons for holding substantial conversations outside of our blogs.

For so many individuals and companies, the blog used to be the hub of online social identity. There was YourWebsite.whatever to hold the static fort. Then YourBlog set up someplace as the social headquarters. And of course a variety of social media accounts as spokes emerging from the blogging wheel.

Now identity is becoming its own hub to an ever-increasing extent. The brand is the hub and the blog has been relegated in many instances to be just another spoke among dozens.

But if social media use is hindering your blog’s progress as an attention hub, is that necessarily a bad thing?

The Blossoming Collective Power of Non-Blog Social Media

Social networking, media sharing, community-based content creation and voting – all of these  have grown in intensity and popularity to the point where they may collectively, if not individually, influence a person’s or organization’s online presence more than single-channel modes of communication such as blogs.

A business that uses the social Web to plant seeds of goodwill or connect with customers no longer needs just a blog in order to do that effectively. In fact, it may need to not just have a blog. It may need to have a presence across several popular online social destinations in addition to (or even instead of) a blogging presence. Saviors for what otherwise would be a lonely blog.

Which is why The Blog Herald cares about and covers Twitter and Facebook and many other entities that don’t use “blog” or “blogging” in their elevator pitches, and why we constantly try to wrap our minds around this ever-evolving, hundred-headed beast called social media.

And why maybe you need to lock yourself in a closet for a few minutes this week and ponder how your blog should really fit into what you do online. Whether it’s being killed or saved by what you do outside of it. And whether each hour you spend on any social media tool, blog or not, is actually saving or killing time for you and for those with whom you converse.

Are your social networks taking away from or adding to what goes on at your blog? How do you strike the right balance?

photo by russelljsmith

The post Social Networks: Blog Killers or Blog Saviors? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

In what ways are blogging and the MingleStick similar?

It’s all about connection. A blog connects the author with its readers. The “connection device” is the article itself. In a similar way, our MingleStick product connects two people together. The MingleStick is a physical device that enables two people to connect with a simple press of a button. The MingleStick has proven itself to be great event technology within the convention and tradeshow industry.

What are some blogging conferences at which the Mingle Stick might help attendees?

The MingleStick has applicability at any type of conference. If attendees are networking with other attendees or talking with exhibitors, a great opportunity exists for the MingleStick solution. Mingle360 would love to work with a few of the top conferences in the world. We can help these blogging conferences create a unique and memorable experience for their attendees.

How could the MingleStick benefit blog conference attendees as opposed to attendees of other kinds of events?

I believe bloggers could realize immediate results by way of using a MingleStick at a conference. A blogger could use their MingleStick to help grow their readership. The blogger would tell a person “if you mingle with me, I’ll add you to my blog.” This is a great way to proactively and aggressively build your readership. I see the MingleStick as a great marketing tool for the blogging industry.

Here’s a video showing the MingleStick in computer-animated action (link).

Thanks to Bradley for this interview and information about the MingleStick. I think it’s an ingenious way to fight business card wallet bloat while improving the effectiveness of bloggers’ networking efforts.

What’s your reaction? Do you think the MingleStick has the potential to disrupt the way you meet and mix with other bloggers at offline events? What questions do you have for Bradley and the gang at Mingle360?

The post Could the MingleStick Change Blogger Conferences? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Earlier today, the Blog Herald interviewed Amanda Rose (Twitter: @amanda), founder and event organizer for Twestival (see earlier coverage), which gathers volunteer Twitter users everywhere this Thursday, February 12 to raise money and awareness for charity:water. Here you go.

How has Twitter helped the spread of the Twestival meme?

Twitter as a communications tool has enabled Twestival to happen.  This type of global, grassroots events series could never have happened even 2 years ago.  The immediacy of communication and the ability to tie communities together via Twitter has been crucial.  We are also using Twitter as the foundation of many of our fundraising efforts; Tipjoy.com is a great way for people to ‘tweet’ their donation and spread the word to others.

What was your strategy for using Twitter to promote Twestival going into the campaign?

My initial strategy was to use my already existing network of Twitter followers to see if they would be interested in hosting a Twestival.  I explained the vision and after a few days I knew that I had the support of a few key cities, so that when I pushed it out publicly with a tweet on January 8th, it would create some buzz and some excitement for people to be apart of it. I keep an eye on the Twitter search for Twestival and flag up any interest or divert communications to make sure I get a feeling of what is happening in the Twittersphere.

How has that strategy evolved as you’ve conducted the campaign?

The strategy has been pretty consistent.  We are working under very short timescales, with volunteers, so the time element has been difficult

What do you think motivates people to volunteer for events like this?

I believe that people want to do something good with the talents they have.  So if you ask them and set out parametres for their involvement, where they see what part they play in this global project, it doesn’t take a lot to motivate people.  I have not had trouble finding any lack of volunteers for requests; from building an online map of cities participating, to sourcing sponsorship for the Gumball Rally that turned around in 24hrs.

Can you share any inspiring examples of how Twestival is making a difference offline?

I think the most inspiring thing will be on Friday February 13th, when we all tune into Twitter to hear how many lives are going to be changed because of what was accomplished through Twestival globally.

Thanks again to Amanda Rose for allowing us some time to interview her as she helps the world prepare for the inaugural Twestival. After Amanda catches a few much-needed winks of sleep post-Twestival, we’ll try to catch up to her again for another interview.

Are you participating in Twestival? What would you like to see for Twestival 2010? Any questions for Amanda Rose, Twestival founder and organizer?

The post Interview with Amanda Rose, Twestival Organizer appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The folks at RP found that during peak hours of Web usage in Europe, the Google Analytics Javascript loaded nearly twice as slowly – 97% slower than usual, to be precise – as it did on average in Europe during all hours of use.

in general, GA actually loads slightly faster in Europe than in the US, but it also experiences a much greater percentage rate of slowdown in Europe during peak hours relative to its average performance.

As Royal Pingdom puts it: “[W]hile the European load times are significantly faster on average than the North American ones, the performance is much more uneven over the course of the day.”

The difference between the maximum and minimum load times for North America is 27%, but in Europe the difference is 97%.

See the Royal Pingdom post for several intriguing data graphs supporting their conclusions.

Update: I’ve clarified above that the figures above refer to load time during peak hours relative to average load time, and that GA actually loads slightly faster overall in Europe than in the US.

Do you think Google Analytics is worth the trouble? Why or why not?

The post Is Google Analytics Slooowing Down Your Blog? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

gooseGrade Survey: People Care About Typos and Factual Mistakes on Blogs and Social Media

Do your blog readers care whether you can spell Barack Obama?

A 2008 survey conducted by gooseGrade, a crowdsourcing editing tool for bloggers and social media content creators, tried to find out how much consumers of new media content really care about typos and factual mistakes. (See TechCrunch’s database entry on gooseGrade.)

The survey had 175 respondents and resulted in data such as the following:

• 57.5% of respondents said that they get the majority of their new on the Web – but from traditional media “crossovers” like CNN.com, not blogs or social media websites
• More than 42% said that they had “often” or “very often” left a website upon noticing spelling, grammar or factual errors; another 36.2% reported “sometimes” having that experience
• 87.8% of respondents said they find spelling or grammar errors distracting when reading online content and have spent less time browsing a web site than they otherwise would have because spelling or grammar errors on the page became too distracting

The folks at gooseGrade used their survey to justify their service’s existence, emphasizing the large percentage of respondents who said that blogs and social media are not as respected as mainstream media because they are believed to contain more errors.

The Real Traffic and Backlink Killer: Laziness

In some cases, bloggers can plead ignorance. Maybe you just didn’t know that misunderestimated ain’t a word. (Not a “real” one, anyway, although a certain former political leader was known to have employed it.)

But the primary reason blogs have so many mistakes is that their authors get sloppy. It’s just too tempting to hit that Publish button before conducting a thorough fact check.

I just know you’re scouring this post for a doozy – a broken link, a garbled word, a blatant disregard for the truth.

How interesting that you could be the one diligently combing through each sentence while I could be the one carelessly finger-dancing my way through.

Related Resources on Blog Writing and Factual Mistakes

• Problogger: Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar – Quality Control for Bloggers
• ReadWriteWeb: Errors By Bloggers Kill Credibility & Traffic, Study Finds

Do you agree that laziness is the primary cause of error-prone blogging?

The post Why Typos and Factual Errors Could be Killing Your Blog Readership appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The network has a What’s New page explaining the recent changes in detail.

Mashable says that “the focus is clearly to get visitors listening to more shows.” I agree. Without listeners, BTR dies on the vine.

A secondary pair of focal points to the changes at BlogTalkRadio appears to be to get BTR show hosts to talk to each more and to get more people to discover BTR via social networking websites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.

A quick list of the latest changes to BlogTalkRadio:

• A new listener/host/staff forum
• A new Learning Center for new users and site visitors
• New terms (my favorite change) – for example, “host profiles” are now “shows”
• A new personalized account area called “My BlogTalkRadio” for registered users
• Enhanced website search
• Improved integration with iTunes
• Larger show logo size (300 x 300 instead of 200 x 200)
• Enhanced media player when you listen to or host an online radio broadcast

I had the exhausting yet exhilarating opportunity to anchor a 12-hour live show for BlogTalkRadio on Blog Action Day last October 15 and I wish these changes had been in place back then. While I found the BlogTalkRadio site easy to use after some training by the BTR staff, I can see why many first-time users may have felt frustrated by some of the jargon and hard-to-find options.

I look forward to trying out the new BlogTalkRadio. Your thoughts are welcome here.

How do you like the new BlogTalkRadio?

The post BlogTalkRadio Gets New Look, Networking Features appeared first on The Blog Herald.

In case you haven’t visited the Google homepage today (as if that were how you got all your news), it’s World AIDS Day today.

According to Google Blog Search, over 13,000 blogs have talked about World AIDS Day in the last 24 hours. That’s more than participated in Blog Action Day 2008, which focused on poverty.

Some indications of mass blog participation and the impact of social media on this event:

• BlogPulse is showing a major spike in mentions of “aids” or “World AIDS Day.”
• AIDS.gov has a blog at the official website for the US government’s AIDS prevention and information resource.
• Bloggers Unite, a service of BlogCatalog, has recruited the BlogCatalog user base of tens of thousands of people to participate in World AIDS Day.
• Technorati shows dozens of high-authority blog posts discussing World AIDS Day 2008 in the past couple of days.
• “World AIDS Day” is one of Twitter’s hottest phrases right now.

It’s incredible to me how the Web continues to change the way people learn about, participate in and spread awareness of events like World AIDS Day.

How did you find out about World AIDS Day 2008? I’ll bet it wasn’t through your morning newspaper. More likely it was through some form of social media. Even if mainstream media alerted you to it, you probably sought and found gobs of information about it via your favorite social media sources.

Worldwide, more than 33 million people currently have AIDS. I wonder how many of them have access to social media.

I wonder what those numbers will be on December 1, 2018. I hope the first one is much smaller.

Disclosure: Easton Ellsworth is currently doing blog consulting work for Bloggers Unite and its parent, BlogCatalog.

The post Bloggers Observe World AIDS Day 2008 En Masse appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The 2008 US presidential election will be over in about 100 hours (unless Florida can’t make up its mind again).

There are, in fact, other elections as well next Tuesday. But of course we all know the real battle is Obama vs. Palin – er, McCain.

Without further ado (and before the comment firestorm begins below), The Blog Herald presents the best blogosphere and social media destinations to track Election Day 2008, in no particular order:

1. CNN Political Ticker – Yes, it’s a mainstream media site. But it’s also a blog. The differences are so blurry now in 2008 anyway. :) It’s common to see hundreds of comments on a post here as Election Day approaches. You can subscribe to twice-daily email alerts if you don’t want the barrage of zero-hour coverage to disturb your day off from work. Bias: Obama.

2. WordPress Tag Search – Grab the feed for “Election Day,” “Joe the Plumber,” etc. The WP community always has fresh insights, opinions, rumors and rants. Bias: neutral.

3. BlogPulse – Follow hot terms’ ups and downs as the voting results come in en masse. Bias: neutral.

4. Google Blog Search – Recently fitted with a more social homepage, GBS should offer a good mix of the top Election Day stories in the blogosphere. Honorable mention: Technorati Politics channel. Bias: neutral.

5. Memeorandum – A highly addictive memetracker portal to political news, with heavy emphasis on blogs. Bias: neutral.

6. Election 2008 on Twitter – Hypnotic auto-refreshing river of Twitter updates having to do with this year’s elections. Think it’s moving fast now? Just wait until Tuesday. Bias: neutral … but Twitter users on the whole sem to favor Obama.

7. Official Barack Obama Blog and Official John McCain Blog – Can’t go wrong getting bloggy news straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Bias: duh.

8. BlogCatalog Politics Channel – Includes blogger discussions, groups, a blog directory and search capabilities. Bias: neutral.

9. UStream.TV – Live video from all over the place. Bias: neutral.

10. The Caucus – Another mainstream-slash-new media source of great info and perspective. By The New York Times. Bias: Obama.

11. The Huffington Post – The number one blog in the world as ranked by Technorati. Bias: Obama.

12. Daily Kos – Another gigantic political blog that will be liveblogging the whole Election Day. Bias: Obama.

13. Think Progress – “Think Progress is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The Center for American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization. With the blog, CAPAF seeks to provide a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies.” Bias: Obama.

14. The Daily Dish – By Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic. Bias: Obama.

15. Talking Points Memo – By Joshua Micah Marshall. Bias: Obama.

16. Michelle Malkin – One of the best conservative voices. Bias: McCain.

17. Ben Smith – Politico.com blog covering all sides of election news. Bias: Neutral, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong.

18. The Corner – From the National Review. Bias: McCain.

19. Crooks and Liars – By John Amato. Bias: Obama.

Which one of these resources is your favorite? What others would you recommend?

And who are you voting for and why? ;)

Image from The Situationist

The post Election Day 2008: The Best Blogs and Social Media Resources appeared first on The Blog Herald.

Reaching for your wallet?

On Tuesday, BuzzLogic released a report called Harnessing the Power of Blogs which concludes that the blogosphere has more power than online social networks when it comes to shaping consumer buying decisions.

The report analyzes the results of a survey, conducted by JupiterResearch and sponsored by BuzzLogic, that asked 2,210 online consumers in the US about the ways in which different kinds of websites influenced their purchasing choices.

One conclusion of the survey: “Frequent” blog readers – that is, those who read blogs once or more each month – actually depend more on blogs to find other blog content than on any search engine.

Another interesting find: the number of people who read at least one blog a month has quadrupled since 2004.

The report is quite interesting and confirms some pet theories of mine – for instance, that blog search engines remain somewhat obscure, and that blog readers trust links on blogs even more than search results.

Before you start high-fiving yourself for blogging since 1999, keep in mind the survey’s finding that 50 percent of blog readers have never taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on a blog.

What do you think of the new BuzzLogic research results?

The post Blogs Influence Buyers More Than Social Networks Do, BuzzLogic Study Finds appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The release comes two days earlier than previously anticipated, with Gardner saying in his most recent blog post announcing the launch of the new Revolution theme, “I figure I owed you all an early release.”

That, or he really just wanted to be able to nurse his post-Halloween sugar hangover on Friday night. :)

Starting November 1, the original Revolution theme will no longer be available for purchase (although existing Revolution buyers will still receive support “for life”), except for necessary updates for 12 months to maintain compatibility with WordPress. Instead, Gardner has opted to go the open-source route for monetization, with plans to sell premium support for the free Revolution Two themes on an annual ($99.95) or lifetime ($149.95) basis.

Follow the Revolution Two project on Twitter for project updates.

Have you ever used the Revolution theme for WordPress? What do you think of the new Revolution Two themes? Do you agree with Brian Gardner’s decision to make the Revolution Two themes open-source?

The post Brian Gardner Launches Revolution Two Open-Source WordPress Theme appeared first on The Blog Herald.

The latest evidence for this, as Salmon sees it, is the refusal by VoxEU, an economics news portal that has been called a blog before, to be included in Aaron Schiff’s popular directory of top economics blogs.

While I’m not so sure VoxEU is clearly a blog – it seems more like a blog-like aggregator to me – I think Salmon is absolutely right in asserting that mainstream media news sources are still generally reluctant to treat blogs as equally valuable (and linkworthy) disseminators of useful information.

What do you think?

The post Mainstream Media Still Stingy About Linking to Blogs? appeared first on The Blog Herald.

If every blogger involved in the annual October 15 event would have left a comment at Chris’s post, there would be well over 10,000 of them.

And yet, if every person living in poverty were to comment, there would be more than 3 BILLION comments.

Can you fathom it?

I am grateful to be an assistant event coordinator for Blog Action Day this year. It has broken my spirit several times over to consider the magnitiude and subject matter of the effort.

Already, Blog Action Day 2008 has been graced by many bloggers who do grasp the global problem of poverty, at least to some extent (for who can really plumb its depths?):

• Brian Clark at Copyblogger – Brian is donating $25 to Save the Children for every pledge of $10 or more made at his Blog Action Day post.
• Sokwanele at This is Zimbabwe – The author shares concerns about ongoing poverty among family members in Zimbabwe.
• Darren Rowse at Problogger – Darren recounts personal experiences that taught him about poverty.
• Stephen Olmstead at Sonata Creative – “What I am going to blog about, is a little boy named Job Mwanga Chelangat who lives in Piswa, Uganada.” This is what it’s about. Thank you, Stephen.
• Social Media Club Austin – Nearly 50 bloggers, podcasters and videocasters are covering poverty in the city of Austin, Texas in the US for 24 hours.

There are thousands of other wonderful posts around the Web popping up right now.

Blog Action Day is a prime example of the power of the Web and blogging to make a positive difference in the world.

Visit BlogActionDay.org for event news and information on how you can participate in the discussion about and fight against poverty.

The post Thousands of Bloggers Tackle Poverty for Blog Action Day 2008 appeared first on The Blog Herald.