Top Blog Branding Series

March 31, 2007

Today I’m glad to announce the launching of a new premium compilation of techniques, strategies and knowledges oriented to create powerful and outstanding blog brands. It is called Top Blog Branding Series, as you know, I’ve made emphasis in spreading the importance of branding in this medium. I’ve already published some articles about this topic, that’s why next week everything will be oriented to show you how to build a powerful brand around your blog. After reading and learning this series of post you’ll be able to apply all your knowledge to create a powerful brand for your blog.This collection of posts will begin explaining the basics about branding, the relations between, brands and blog and so on. So far these are the articles already published that will be part of this amazing collection.

Next week, we’ll take a deep look into these topics and others. Believe me, everything you need about blog branding will be in this compilation. It is time to start thinking in going further.

Current Contests in the Blogosphere

March 30, 2007

It’s time to win! but in order to win something you have to participate in something, that’s why I gathered some of the best current contests and competitions in the blogosphere. Some of theme are crazy , others are strange, but there are contests for everyone, from designers to cricket fans, try to enter to one of these competitions, at least for fun. anyway, Here is the list of current competitions, if you are running one right now, let me know, and I’ll be glad to include it in this post.

The Best Blog Basket is running a contest to give your prediction for India’s next captain along with the justification. Of course I don’t know much about this, but its a good contest, specially for those bloggers from India and for those crkiket fans, the prizes are good too, well, check by yourself, I think it worths it.

Garry Conn is hosting a competition to for the best MyBloglog Avatar, as you can imagine, rules are very simple, just submit a comment, and wait for the next stage, if your avatar is selected as the winner you are going to win $20, sounds fair. It takes less than five minutes, so try it.

Inspiration Bit is running a contest, another simple one. Just suggest a non-monetary prize and recommend how the winner should be chosen, the prize? I really don’t know, ask by yourself.

PhoneCritic.net has a really good one, it is called Review your cell phone and you might win $1000, there’s no need to explain more about this, it is a good prize so think about it.

Remember, if you are running a competition in your blog, let me know and I’ll update this post to include a link to your site. As I said in a previous post, I’ll start a contest very soon, but there are going to be a lot in this blog, with good prizes.

 

A Huge Bump in My Tehnorati Rank

March 29, 2007

I got up this morning to find that my Technorati rank increased a lot in just one night. Yesterday when I went to bed, my TR was 143,200 (not bad) , but today it seems that I broke the top 100,00 barrier, I’m now at 85,919, 54,580 , 49,127 sounds great, The Lounge is just one month and 2 days old, so these are great news. Well that’s it I thought it might be a good idea to share this with my readers, and friends of course. Thanks!

WordPress Theme. Lavrentis 1.0!

March 29, 2007

 

Hi there, as you know, I designed the theme for this blog, and let me tell you, since the first day I’ve been receiving very kind words about the layout and the looking of this blog, I really appreciate that. I’m not a web designer, but I have a big interest in design, that’s why I thought I would be a great idea to design themes for WordPress once in a while, and today I present my second creation, the first for public release, it is called Lavrentis 1.0, a very clean and modern design, with subtle touches of color that’ll give your blog a much better image.

This theme works fine with all browsers and is widget ready. Remember those posts where I explained the importance and the power of a good image of a blog? well, maybe now it’s time to start thinking in renewing your site. I’ve seen many posts through many blogs referring to the importance of design and branding in this business. So, if you think your blog looks a little bit boring or obsolete, try this nice looking theme, it is still brand new. By the way, this was also a good strategy to promote my blog, because I’ve been receiving visits from Theme Viewer since I uploaded the theme. Just try it, I think your blog deserves it. Let me know what you think.

Click here to go to the Download and Preview site.

Great Posts From Our Neighbor Blogs

March 28, 2007

It is time to share with you some interesting posts from some great blogs. As I promised, all those blogs linking to a post of Blogger Lounge will receive the same in exchange, a link to one article of them. I have to say that these articles were not selected randomly, I chose articles that are relevant for all the readers of this blog. Thanks to these great bloggers for their advices and tips, please take the time to check their sites. And if you want to appear in this blog check this post to learn more. Ok, enough here they are, enjoy them.

Jemmille has a great post called “Optimizing WordPress for Search Engines” it is basically an article that explains which tools to use to improve your experience with WordPress and SE. It explains how to get rid of spam comments, how to make a sitemap and much more.

Best Blog Basket shares with us “10 quick ways to make your blog interactive” this is a very useful resource for all those blogger that want to build a dynamic blog. I alway say that blogging is a social thing, you have to interact with your readers. Take a look and try to apply these tips.

SmartWealthyRich gives us a great post called “Be Creative!” as simple as that, it is a very well written article that describes how creativity and imagination can help you become a rich person. Remember that talent, creativity and imagination are valuable assets. Good work Jon!

Jules has a blog that works as her own online diary, it has some interesting and funny things to read. Take the time to visit her site.

 

 

Open Gender Minds To Success

March 27, 2007

¿Who said business and success was only for men? There have been a lot of great successful women who had began great business projects. Nowadays, it is more common to see women occupying important positions in politics and business. Besides, business is part of women actual worries, because they are interested in their personal projects, not only in the professional matters but also in the economical ones. That´s how women have been part of the new era, they’re playing a very important role. Men and women should learn to work together, because success makes no distinction and is available for those who want it the most.

An example about the influence that women are making in the world of business, is their amazing presence in the blogosphere. There are hundreds of great blogger girls, really. We believe toughly on women capacity, and on their great ideas and their incredible talent. Internet market has been invaded with feminine ideas: clothes, jewelry, fashion trends, beauty gadgets & technology, cosmetics, health, fitness, business, design.. and a thousand of more new concepts surrounding all those topics. As a proof of this we have the increasing number of edited, managed and read blogs by women. But their ideas are not limited only on “feminine” concepts but also on those who were thought as “men stuff”.

Since the beginning, men were the only ones that were really into the business world, but women have been participating thoroughly in this world were competition has no gender. They are not afraid anymore of stereotypes, and are confident of changing old ideas and schemes that we want to accept it or not they can not be anymore part of the new world. Besides, women can offer us options surrounded of qualities that possibly men have less, and the other way around.

That`s why I believe that women should have the same opportunities online as offline, and I also want that all our readers , male and female have the necessary tools and resources to discover thousand of possibilities to be successful. Remember that this world is opened to all those who are not afraid to experience innovation, and break the ideas that are thought to be “ what must be”. What do you think?!

Thanks a lot Anne! and Keep up the good work! LY.

If You Need To Collect Money… ChipIn!

March 25, 2007

While I was making research on some AdSense keywords, I came across with a site called ChipIn.com , it is a simple web-based free tool that simplifies the process of collecting money. I’ve seen this widget in many blog, of people asking money for silly things like a new MacBook, an iPod, or a Playstation. I think that if you are really going to ask for money you should do it for something that is worth of doing it. What do you think? I mean, It’ll be good to use this tool to collect money for a charitable organization or to hire writers for your blog and increase the quality of your content,, but well, that’s my point of view.

Anyway, I was explaining how this application works, it is in fact very simple. You just have to enter the title of your fund raising campaign, the total amount, the deathline date, and your PayPal account and that’s it just copy the code and paste it in your blog or website and start collecting money. Nice right? if you try it please let us know.

Get more Backlinks with “Blog Relations”

March 23, 2007

Ok, It’s been almost a month since Blogger Lounge was launched, trough all this time this blog has increased its popularity, Technorati Rank, and traffic. The first day, “The Lounge” received 121 Unique visitors and 247 page views, after a week, this blog was receiving an average of 300 unique visits per day, thanks to an intensive promotion, visiting other blogs, adding comments, promoting through forums submitting some stories to sites like Digg.com well the point is that all this actions made this site more and more popular, we are still growing, this blog has a lot of potential, by the way, thanks a lot to our loyal readers and subscribers. After batch 37 on John Chow’s blog where The Lounge was included at the top of the list, this site reached the 500 unique visitors per day barrier, well that day there were actually 506 UV.

The point is that I think it is time now to use a new feature in this blog, it has many names out there but I prefer to call it “Blog Relations” because that’s what this is all about. It a good opportunity, this is a win-win situation, a link for a link and it works like this: You choose one post from this blog (or many, it’s up to you) , there are many interesting posts in here.You talk about that in your own blog, make reference and add the link to the post you chose and to this post. here is an example of what I want.

“I found a very interesting post in Blogger Lounge , it is called “The Top 10 most valuable blogs of 2007” basically it is a list that shows the most valuable blogs of this year, some of them are …..”

Ok something like that, this is going to give high quality content for your blog and a nice backlink from this site, After that, in exchange I’ll do add a link to one article in your blog, I’ll go to your archives page and I’ll look for an interesting post and then add it to a special list. This is good for you and for your blog, remember that The Lounge has a PageRank 5, we have to share, so what are you waiting for? start looking for an interesting post.

An Entire Year of High Quality Posts

March 23, 2007

After an intensive and exhausting brainstorming session, finally I came up with more than 300 high quality posts for this year and for this blog. 300 really interesting posts covering some of the best topics around, you are really going to enjoy them, as I will. The posts for this year will be about:

  • Success & Money
  • Leadership & Entrepreneurship
  • Creativity & Innovation
  • Blogging & Successful Strategies
  • An much more.

All those 300 posts this year plus reviews, contests, news, new features and any other crazy idea that comes out of my mind, my brain is always working, and thinking new things. The brainstorm session as I said was really intensive, but I think it worths the effort, you should try it. If you want to know how I did it, just wait till tomorrow and you’ll see.

P.S: This post is not part of the 300 entries I have in mind.

Blogs v.s Websites, What’s the Best Option to Make Money?

March 22, 2007

Blogs are very similar to websites the difference is that blogs are updated frequently gaining even more popularity than magazines or online newspapers. The other day I arrived to a chat room for webmasters and bloggers the discussions were not to interesting , they were too technical, well the thing is that I came across with discussion between two guys one of them was a professional blogger (or at least that’s what he said) and the other one was a website owner both were arguing something like how much time it takes to start earning money with a site and about the best option to generate a substantial income, I arrived a little bit late to the conversation, the blogger said that it was faster if you had a blog and what do you think the website owner answered? Yes, that it was faster with a website with several pages,

After I left the chat room I was thinking in that question for a long time, which one makes money in a faster way and with the best results? A blog or a website? Of course I’m a blogger, I believe in the power of blogging but it is actually a difficult question because there are websites and blogs that are making thousands each month from advertising and affiliate programs.

The truth is that to be successful with a website you have to be creative , as an example of this we have sites like Google or YouTube where creativity and innovation is the main ingredient. It is very very difficult to achieve success with a normal website. So i think right now blogs are the best option, and they are still going to evolve in something much better, I’m sure of that.

I think that it depends on the quality and relevancy of the content, the niche, the tipe of website and blog and of course the traffic you have. I wrote this post because I want to ask you: What do you think? Which one makes money in a faster way? Please let us know what you think , leave your answer in your comments and explain why, as simple as that.

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