The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Content, Content, Content Part II

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone So you’ve finding all kinds of content for your fandom based upon our previous discussions. You’ve found a trough of information to flow into your blog. Now what? How do you get all that information into your blog, and should you? Do you need to publish everything? […]

Blog Struggles: Trackbacks Count

At a blog conference recently, I overheard the following exchange over a laptop as part of a blog review exercise: “For your blog to be successful, you need more comments on your blog posts.” “I have plenty of comments on my blog. See, this one has 14 comments.” “That post has only one comment. The […]

When is the Best Time and Day to Publish a Blog Post

I’ve just updated my article, “When is the Best Time and Day to Post on Your Blog?” Originally published in June of 2006, once a year I update the post, continuing to evaluate when is the best time and day of the week to publish a post on your blog, helping you make your own […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Create a Game Plan

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone Are you ready to plunge into your own fandom blog? Then it’s time you started thinking more like a webmaster than a fan. A fan is all agog with the thrills and spills of their star, but hosting a fandom blog means making a plan and sticking […]

The Art of the Fan-Based Blog: Cultivate Your Passion

By DB Ferguson of the No Fact Zone If you’re going to build a fan site, it’s assumed that you have a passion for the subject of the blog. You don’t have to know everything about the subject of your site, but you do have to really be passionate about this journey you are about […]

Blog Struggles: I Just Need Two Seconds of Your Time

How often have you been asked for “two seconds of your time” in purpose, email, or chat? I’m asked every day for those precious two seconds, and every day I struggle to say no. My day begins at five in the morning. I used to make time for exercise but more and more my work […]

Developing a Tourist Community Site With WordPress

How would you like to hand-hold a web developer as he creates a WordPress-based Tourist Community Site? Amir Helzer of ICanLocalize recently decided to create such a site for his small tourist town of Bariloche in Argentina. And he wants your help. Over the next month or so, Amir will be taking your advice on […]

Taking Action on Blog Action Day October 15, 2008

Blog Action Day 2008 is October 15th this year and the topic up for bloggy discussion is poverty. The site offers a lot of suggestions on ways to blog about poverty including technology blogs exploring poverty fighting initiatives, a political blog comparing candidate positions on the issue, and a sports blog covering charity activities by […]

Tracking Yourself and Your Blog Brand Across the Online Social World

A while ago I ran across the Yahoo Pipes Social Media Fire Hose, a script written with Yahoo Pipes by Joseph Kingsley. If you want to track yourself, your blog, your brand, or any keyword or phrase across the web, especially by social media sites, this is the tool for you. The Yahoo Pipes Social […]

How to Remove WordPress.com Ads From Your WordPress.com Blog

Matt Mullenweg has just announced that you can go “ad-free” on your WordPress.com blog. While you may have never noticed, those who are not logged into WordPress.com will see ads on blogs across the WordPress.com network. two years ago, WordPress.com started experimenting with Google ads to help support the cost of the experimental and state-of-the-art […]

Blog Struggles: Negative Campaigning Isn’t Just For Politicians

With all the negative campaigning and nasty spin by the media wrapped up in election campaigns and conventions, it surprised me to find a connection between a politician commenting on negative campaigns and my continued defense of bloggers attacking other bloggers and going negative. I thought it worth talking about in my ongoing series on […]

Blogs Offer Communication, Information, and Connections During Disasters

Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today just called me from Northern Louisiana to report that he and his family have survived the evacuation from their home in Shreveport, Louisiana, though Hurricane Gustav appears to have done more damage where they evacuated to rather than where they left from. Jonathan and I were both victims of Hurricane […]

Liz Strauss is Breaking the Web and Pushing WordPress

Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Bloggers is attempting to “break the web” today at noon CST from Chicago (GMT -6). As part of her Showcase Your Blog series, she will be using the future post feature in WordPress to publish a blog post a minute showcasing more than 250 blogs. Has anyone set up […]

A Blogger’s Life: Why Blog and When Do You Stop Blogging?

Dr. Johnson’s Cat asks “So: Why Blog?”, a question that plagues many bloggers, wanna be bloggers, and wish-they-weren’t bloggers. Why do we keep on blogging when the fun drains away. And what keeps bringing us back. Googling the phrase “stop blogging” gets 171,000 hits: Ten Reasons Why I Should Stop Blogging; Should I Stop Blogging? […]

Lessons from LTPact 2008: Cloud Servers and Gambling

I spent the past few days in Las Vegas for the Layered Tech LTPact 2008 Conference, an event sponsored by Layered Tech, the second largest web hosting and reseller in the world, among WordPress luminaries and experts and a lot of server geeks and serious online business folks. I got a chance to spend time […]