Weekly Digest: Web Browser Guide for Bloggers, Blogger Prejudice, Awesome Review of My Book, and More WordPress News

The Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress this week features more wonderful reviews and recommendations of my new book – the orders are overwhelming! On the Blog Herald, I’m reintroducing bloggers to their most important blogging tool: the web browser. I also took some risks and blogged about blogger prejudice, a very risky topic for me that seems to getting good responses.

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to the Weekly Digest category of Lorelle on WordPress by the Weekly Digest feed or by email with the Weekly Digest Email Subscription to stay up to date on what is happening in Lorelle’s world of WordPress and blogging.

We’ll get to the news about Lorelle on WordPress in a moment, but I wanted to brag about my recent article series on the Blog Herald dealing with the Web Browser, the tool that allows us to connect to our blogs and one that is often most overlooked in the process.

Blog Herald Columns

Two weeks ago, I started the new series on the Web Browser Guide for Bloggers on the Blog Herald and the response has been incredible. It’s getting a lot of traffic and attention.

I think it’s important that we learn more about the tool we use constantly to explore the web, write articles for your blogs and read blogs. And others want to know more, too.

I covered some of the basic parts and pieces that help you navigate the web, move through tabs, search (lots of search tips), working with Favorites and Bookmarks, shortcuts with the buttons, keyboards, and mouse, customizing your browser, exploring the power of tabs, offer a variety of powerful Internet add-ons and Firefox Extensions that are must-have tools for bloggers, look at how bloggers and others are often conned and scammed on the web and how to be more security aware, and then I put it all together and describe for you how I use my browser to the “max” to more efficiently manage my blog and write blog posts.

This is an invaluable series for bloggers, so check it out.

Web Browser Guide Article Series

If you are looking for news on WordPress, check out my weekly WordPress news announcements on the Blog Herald, giving you the most up-to-date news, tips, techniques, WordPress Theme and Plugin announcements, upgrades, security patches, fixes, WordPress events, and all the WordPress news you can use. Here are some recent WordPress news announcements:

Some other noteworthy articles you should be reading recently published on the Blog Herald include:

Exciting Lorelle on WordPress News

I have a bunch of guest blogging events coming up soon. I’ll have the news on those as soon as they are released. An unusual one will be on Darren Rowse’s Problogger, so watch his site carefully.

WordCamp 2007 July 21-22 in San Francisco: I am planning to be at the next WordCamp annual conference/meeting/get-together. More news will be out soon at the official http://2007.wordcamp.org/ site. Matt says it will be at the same place as last year, the Swedish American Hall on Market Street, and that there may be a small fee for attendees, probably to help cover costs of the hall and event. There will be speakers and presentations, and probably some exciting announcements about what is happening with WordPress. Hope to see you there.

Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging: We can barely keep up with the books flying out of the boxes and into the mail. If you haven’t ordered your copy of the limited edition first printing of my new book, Blogging Tips, What Blogger’s Won’t Tell You About Blogging, you better move fast. This limited printing features a reduced introductory price, so get your order in now before we run out of books.

DigiZen reviewed the book and in Blogging Tips Libro de Salmos de la Blogosfera says (with my humble translation after):

Con el estilo claro y ameno que la caracteriza, Lorelle nos lleva de la mano por el vasto universo de los blogs compartiendo su sabiduría y la experiencia que la ha llevado a tener mucho éxito.

Blogging Tips es una especie de libro de salmos para los blogueros. No es un libro técnico sobre el manejo de sistemas para crear blogs. Es un tratado en donde se explora con profundidad el bloguear desde una perspectiva genérica con énfasis en los aspectos universales del arte de bloguear. Blogging Tips está repleto de perlas que si las ponemos en practica nos transformarán en blogueros más reflexivos, auténticos y completos: “Even if you write badly, if you write with conviction and passion, then we will read you.”

En Blogging Tips, VanFossen recalca que tener un blog es asunto serio e implica una gran responsabilidad con nuestros lectores. Si eres de los que bloguean por bloguear, no necesitas este libro. Blogging Tips es solo para aquellos que consideran que bloguear es un camino con corazón.

With the clear and pleasant style that it characterizes it, Lorelle takes to us by the hand through the vast universe of blogs sharing its wisdom and the experience to be successful.

“Blogging Tips” is a psalm book for bloggers. It is not a technical book on the handling of systems to create blogs. It is a treaty in where blogger from a generic perspective, with emphasis in the universal aspects explored in depth on the art of blogging. “Blogging Tips” is filled with tips that, if put into practice, will transform to us into more reflective bloggers, authentic and complete: “Even if you write badly, if you write with conviction and passion, then we will read you.”

VanFossen stresses that having a blog is a serious subject and implies a great responsibility to our readers. If you are not of that type of blogger, you do not need this book. Blogging Tips is for bloggers who blog from the heart.

I am so honored. Thank you!

I’ve published a lot of information, reviews and answers to questions about the book in Update on My Blogging Tips Book: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.

What’s Happening with Lorelle on WordPress

I posted several articles this past week that made me a bit nervous. I usually stick to tips and techniques, but some issues bloggers are facing kept bothering me, so I decided to risk and tackle them head on. Luckily, the reception has been wonderful and supporting, not to mention encouraging. Helping bloggers think through their blogging efforts is making a difference in how they blog and how they can blog better.

Learning Lessons from The Planet Blog, Are You Blogging Your Passion or Blogging to Blog?, and Blogging Prejudice: Aren’t We Past This Yet? all deal with the issue of prejudice. How we judge others, consciously or unconsciously, blaming others, and how that filters into our blogging and commenting style.

One of the greatest gifts blogging has brought to the world is its ability to allow people, of all types, shapes, and colors, to allow their thoughts to be heard without the importance of their surface qualities. I hope blogging continues to honor that evolutionary gift, moving us to a time when we stop judging people for their surfaces and start judging them for their thoughts, encouraging intelligent discussions and not old battles played out over and over without justification.

This past week’s articles from Lorelle on WordPress included:

Most Popular Articles on Lorelle on WordPress

Two Exciting WordPress Contests is thankfully getting a lot of attention. The Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition 2.0 and The Sandbox Designs Competition are very exciting and I can’t wait to see the results of all the creativity the WordPress community has to offer.

Are You Blogging Your Passion or Blogging to Blog and Blogging Prejudice: Aren’t We Past This Yet? struck a chord with many bloggers, as did Learning Lessons from The Planet Blog, and both are getting more traffic as others think this through and write about it on their blogs.

SEO Sitemaps Now Autodiscoverable: Easy and Automatic Roadmaps to Your Blog Content also attracted a lot of visitors as people are still learning about the new method recognized by most search engines to automatically direct search engine web crawlers to your blog’s sitemap. Hopefully, this will be a built-in feature for WordPress blogs soon.

Get Your WordPress.com Blog Now Verified also continues to bring in a lot of attention as WordPress.com bloggers want the stats that Google can provide. However, this system is not for full version WordPress users. It is only for WordPress.com blogs. It’s much easier for full version WordPress users to get their sitemap verified and I have an article on how coming out next week.

Linking To and From Lorelle on WordPress

As you can imagine, links to the Sandbox WordPress Theme and Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition 2.0 sites are very high. I just know some creative folks are stirring up the thought processes and we’ll all benefit from their brilliance.

One of the Top 25 Blogs About Blogging: Inclusion in Daily Blog Tips’ “Top 25 Blogs About Blogging” continues to bring in a lot of traffic, which is great. Have you checked out the list of the top 25 bloggers on blogging yet? There are some great bloggers with fabulous information and resources on that list.

My Life With It wrote “Make Your Blog Shine!”, complementing my article on “tips on how to make your blog more readable“, an excerpt from my new book.

O’Folks Off Their Rocker wrote in “Why blog? Who, me?” about how much my post on blogging your passion meant, especially in my reference to an 80 year old who discovered blogging within the first three months of owning her first computer. Thanks!

SEO Sitemaps Now Autodiscoverable: Easy and Automatic Roadmaps to Your Blog Content has gotten a lot of incoming links, so I guess people hadn’t caught up with the news. Says something about not being the first one out with the news.

Other popular destinations and recommendations from this blog elsewhere included:

Lorelle’s Linkworthy Links

For my linkworthy links this week, here are some interesting sites I’ve found recently:

WordPress.com FAQ – How to Write a Book With Your Blog: One method to set up your blog to become a book.
10 reasons why PR doesn’t work – Guy Kawasaki takes a realistic view at modern Public Relations.
Helvetica, the Documentary Film – I’ve been a fan since the beginning and would love to see this documentary.
PR in the Face of Web 2.0 and Social Media – Part II – When Public Relations turns towards more relationships than public.
New York Times – The Greatest Mystery: Making a Bestseller (print version) – What is the elusive secret behind a best selling book?
Site Point – Fancy Form Design CSS – Into web forms? This is a great tutorial that digs into good web form design.
456 Berea Street – Reasons for Code Bloat – Code bloat kills web designs and web applications, not mention all programs. Kill all code bloat.
Business Week – Rethinking How Women Build Businesses – About the ladies who launch startup businesses – successful women in the workplace.
Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension) – This little treasure has been a great time saver with Gmail.