Weekly Digest: Lorelle in Israel for WordCamp Israel, Blog Struggles Article Series, Blog Disclaimers, and More

Shalom from Israel! I’m in Tel Aviv for WordCamp Israel on October 25, 2007, and catching up with good friends and good food.

This is the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress. To subscribe to the Weekly Digest category of Lorelle on WordPress, you can subscribe 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.

The last issue of my weekly digest was Weekly Digest: End of Two Months of Guest Bloggers, More WordPress Tips, and Heading to Reno, Israel, and Seattle.

What’s Happening with Lorelle on WordPress

Blog Challenge: Blog About Something You Know Nothing About: A blog challenge to put your mind to work and convert newly learned information into a blog post.
Do Business Blogs Need Help Pages?: Regular contributor, Greg Balanko-Dickson, asked my readers if their blogs needed “help pages”, a page to help visitors understand how to explore their blogs. This sparked a lively debate and renewed interest in adding such pages, and how, to blogs.
Blog Challenge: Blog About a Holiday Tradition: This blog challenge asks you to share a story about a holiday tradition, experience, or aspect of your holidays with your readers.
Are Tags Working For You?: Honestly, are tags working for you on your blog? I ask bloggers to consider how they and their readers use tags on their blogs and if we are really using them as efficiently, and practically, as we could.
WordCamp Israel October 25 with Lorelle: Announcement of my appearance at WordCamp Israel and why I’m so excited about attending the conference.
What Have You Done Lately? Much?: James Farmer’s recent announcement of 100,000 Edublogs got me thinking about how little I’ve done to change the world with my blogging efforts. So I ask you, what have you done lately to change the world.
Blogging Success is About The Long Haul: Blogging success can be measured in many ways, but for most, if you can keep up the “long haul” of blogging for a year, two, three, five, or more, then consider your efforts a success.
100,000 Edublogs: James Farmer announces his Edublogs.org network of blogs has reached the 100,000 point for the free educator and student blog service.
Two Months of Blogging and WordPress Tips: As the last post in the series of my two month long celebration of blogging and WordPress tips, I summarize all the posts and fantastic guest bloggers who helped me party hearty and celebrate the two year anniversary of my blog and WordPress.com.
The Art of Smilies in WordPress Blogs: As part of the two month celebration, I shared tips on using smilies on your WordPress blog.
Customizing Your WordPress Theme Footer: Almost everything you ever wanted to know about customizing, tweaking, and adding value to your WordPress Theme footer.
New Article Series – Blog Struggles: In this new ongoing series, I share with you some of the intimate thoughts, internal debates, conflicts, and challenges I have faced over the past 14+ years of blogging. So far, the series includes:
- Blog Struggles: The Search for Blog Content: We put so much energy into “finding” blog content that we often forget the best source for good blog content: from within us. I offer tips and techniques for pulling content from your head.
- Blog Struggles: Ideas and Drafts: We come up with such great ideas and then what? We jot them down, make lists, start post drafts, and they sit there staring at us, as we procrastinate over what to do with all these ideas and how to keep them in check. I offer tips on how to best keep track of your ideas and drafts.
- Blog Struggles: The Blog Focus: As part one in a sub-series of posts on Blog Struggles, I look at the issue of the blog focus, your blog’s ability to turn you from a blogger into an expert.
- Blog Struggles: Why Should Your Blog Have a Focus: Your blog doesn’t have to have a focus, but if it does, these are the reasons, and benefits, of why it should.

Lorelle’s News

Lorelle at WordCamp Israel: It’s official. I’m heading to Israel after the Reno conference to participate in WordCamp Israel on October 25, 2007 in Tel Aviv (English). It’s so exciting. If you live in the Middle East, specifically in Israel, or nearby, get signed up fast. The conference will be in English and Hebrew and will be a powerful WordPress and blogging experience for all.

Lorelle at WordCamp 2007: I just heard from John Pozadizes, the filmmaker behind the videos taken at WordCamp 2007, that my program, Kicking Ass Content Connection, has been viewed over 54,000 times so far. WOW! For a conference of about 400 people, that’s an amazing reach. Wow!

WordPress Podcast: I was invited to participate in two episodes of the WordPress Podcast with Charles Stricklin and Aaron Brazell and both podcasts have been released. Episode 29: Lorelle and WordPress 2.3 covered the upcoming release of WordPress 2.3, news from WordPress.com, my book, and a lot of WordPress news and tips. Episode 30: Weblog Tools Collection Plugin Competition Winners covered the winners of the Weblog Tools Collection 2007 Plugin Competition, and more news about WordPress 2.3. It was great fun and if you are missing out on the WordPress Podcast, you are missing some great WordPress news, tips, and tricks!

American Business Women’s Association Regional Conference in Seattle SOLD OUT: The regional conference is sold out and features me as keynote speaker in Seattle on November 3, 2007. The response was so great, they are working to add a full workshop in the early Spring next year as a scholarship fundraiser for working women who want to further their education. Exciting stuff.

Blogger and Podcaster Magazine: The current issue of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine features an article I’ve written on the mistakes and overlooked tips that I’ve found some veteran and top notch bloggers overlook, helping you to learn how to do these invaluable things on your blog to help your SEO, accessibility and web standards, and increase your readership and traffic. Next month’s issue is on creating a blogging editorial calendar to help you find, build, and plan your blog’s content, with another one coming in a future issue on blog writing tips and how to improve your blog writing skills.

Problems with Taking Your Camera on the Road: I want to thank everyone for their patience over the past few months as I dealt with the web host from hell. I’m now with a new host and things are hopefully going to be back to normal. Taking Your Camera on the Road and Lorelle’s Family History Blog are up and running, finally. I will be updating the design as well as reactivating these blogs in the next couple months. Stay tuned for great information and tips on how the process goes.

Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging

I will be traveling extensively for the next couple months on behalf of my popular book, “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”, and the orders are coming in faster than ever. Amazing.

If you will be attending one of the events, workshops, and programs where I’m speaking, you can buy your own copy and save some postage and handling. If you want your own copy now, you can order it still at the introductory price, you can order it from SplashPress or the new Blog Herald Bookstore.

For more information on the book, see the original announcement and a recent update with reviews and other information, as well as the Blogging Tips Book official page.

Most Popular Articles on Lorelle on WordPress

The most popular posts on Lorelle on WordPress these past few weeks were:

Blasts From the Past

This issue, I thought I’d reach back into the nine months of blogging on the Blog Herald to see what blasts from the past I’ve written there to tickle your fancy:

Blog Herald Columns

Recent articles on the Blog Herald included:

Are You Blogging Through Rose-Colored Glasses?: When we blog, we blog from our perspective. I ask readers to consider what perspective they are blogging through, or what color are your glasses?
Who’s Talking About You and Your Blog: Do you know who is talking about you and your blog? I offer tips and techniques for using Google, Google Blog Search, Yahoo, Yahoo Site Explorer, and MSN Live Search for tracking down who is talking about you and your blog.
WordCamp Israel: Exploring Israeli Bloggers: As part of the celebration of the next international WordCamp conference, I and a few Israeli friends share with you some of our favorite Israel bloggers blogging in English and Hebrew.
Reaching Out To Bring Back More to Your Blog: Do you think about what you can do to reach out more with your blog and blogging efforts to bring in more readers to your blog?
What is Hard About the Hard Work of Blogging?: I ask fellow bloggers to share with us what is so hard about the hard work of blogging.
The Blog is Mightier Than The…: Do you know the answer? For years, we’ve enjoyed saying “the pen is mightier than the sword”, but what about the blog? It’s changing the world, but how?
Goodbye to Splogs and Feed-Driven Blogs: I and many are sick of splogs abusing our blog content with feed scrapers and I share some tips and techniques to help you decide how to handle splogs ripping off your content.
Writing Tips for Blog Action Day: In honor of Blog Action Day, I and some friends share tips on how to write for Blog Action Day on your blog.
Have You Found Your Blog Topic for Blog Action Day – October 15: Blog Action Day was October 15, and I asked readers to consider what they will be blogging about on this global initiative.
Writing a Blog Disclaimer: In part two of this mini-series on blog disclaimers, I offer tips for what to put into a blog disclaimer.
Does Your Blog Need a Disclaimer?: A blog disclaimer is like a “hold harmless agreement” that protects your blog from yourself and your readers and advertisers. I look at some of the blog disclaimers I found on the web as part one of this two part series on writing a blog disclaimer.
What Does It Really Take to Blog?: Do you stop and think about what it really takes to blog? I ask readers to tell us what it really takes to keep blogging.
Are You Blogging What You Should Be Blogging?: Are you blogging on a topic that you should be blogging on? We often start out blogging about one thing and then changing to another, but what brought us down this blogging path and is it working for us?

I finished my article series for the Blog Herald on converting your newsletter into a blog, a great look at how to think through the process of turning a newsletter from a small business, individual, or organization into a blog, saving time and money, and involving more members.

Converting a Newsletter Into a Blog Series

Some recent weekly WordPress Wednesday News reports included:

Lorelle’s Linkworthy Links

This is the Weekly Digest of Lorelle on WordPress.
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Lorelle VanFossen is a member of WordPress, WordPress.com, the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.

4 Comments

Hannit (Achi Dakar)

Posted October 19, 2007 at 9:55 am | Permalink

Welcome to Israel 🙂
As far as I understand you have a busy schedule till Thu.
If you do have a free Eve, please contact me, I’d love to meet 🙂

palweb

Posted October 20, 2007 at 10:36 am | Permalink

oh
its agood topic and im intrested reading it very much
thanks

Paula Stern

Posted October 28, 2007 at 8:02 am | Permalink

It was a great event – Lorelle was fantastic. She brought enthusiasm and life to her subject and kept the laughs rolling. Lorelle – it was wonderful meeting you and I hope to be in contact with you personally in the future. I’m also looking into installing and using WordPress on my sites. Can’t wait to get that rolling.

Keep up the good work – and please pass on the secret of how you have so much energy!

Paula

Lorelle VanFossen

Posted October 28, 2007 at 11:45 am | Permalink

@Paula Stern:

Sugar. 😀

No. The energy comes from the passion and enthusiasm I have for my subject: WordPress and blogging.

As we talked about, when you are blogging your passion, you can’t stop talking! Nor blogging!

It was a joy. Thank you for introducing yourself, Paula, and it was a joy to talk to you. I really look forward to seeing more WordPress blogs in Israel. It gives you the freedom to put all your energy into blogging and not the tweaking, or vise versa, whatever your interest is.

Thanks!

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