Clipmarks | phatmommy's clips

Why You Should Delete Your Blog's Date-Based Archives

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:07:50 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Get rid of those date archives. They're useless and they can cause duplicate content issues which messes up your page rank.

Clip Source: www.blog4seo.com

However lots of bloggers are still falling into a major SEO and usability trap - date based archives. When was the last time you visited a blog and browsed their date based archives?

Date based archives are not just useless from a usability point of view they don't help your SEO either. As well as possible duplicate content issues if you publish full posts in your archives the main issue is that the pages are full of unrelated content. If you group all your posts about the iPhone together on one page Google can see that the page is related to the iPhone and each post will rank higher because of it. When you group 30 posts from January 2006 together on a page Google just sees it as a page of unrelated content.

Tags: wordpress, blogging, page-rank, seo

Social Media Provides Unparalleled Networking Opps

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:25:37 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: This post talks about the value of social media in allowing us to "punch above our weight," i.e. learn and network with those experts and role models we admire.

Clip Source: broadcasting-brain.com

One of the greatest opportunities of social media is to interact with people both similar and different than ourselves who we might never otherwise meet. Technology becomes a common glue and a blank slate where we can interact with virtually anyone, whether they are:

junior to ourselves (but not inferior!)

equivalent in skill and knowledge

the type of expert or role model that we’d look up to.

This flattened playing field and the multiple access paths to attention share is an innovation that we sometimes don’t appreciate for what it is: the ability to punch above our weight.

We all bring our own strengths, weaknesses, gifts and gaps to every situation that we enter. Social media gives us unprecedented opportunities to interact with virtually anyone. We should thoughtfully make the most of any opportunity for interaction with those people that we can learn from (which could be anyone, really).

Tags: social media, networking

DANGERS IN OUR SCHOOLS…EXPOSED

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:11:05 GMT

clipped by: dorine
clipper's remarks: TODAY ON MONTEL

Clip Source: montelshow.com

Everyday, parents all across America entrust teachers and school administrators with the well being of our children but just how safe are our schools? We will meet Stephanie, the mother of an autistic little boy named Ryan. Ryan was repeatedly tied to his chair at the wrists and ankles by his teacher. Stephanie recently won a civil suit against the public school district. Andrea claims her 12-year-old daughter was molested by her gym teacher. Jill claims her 9-year-old son was sexually abused and raped by older bullies in the school bathroom. Jill had to take her son out of school temporarily to deal with both the emotional and physical scars of this experience. Shanna claims her son was violently beaten up by a bully in a racially motivated attack. Gina’s son, Johnny was “paddled” so hard by his principal that he fell forward and broke his nose.

Tags: schools, danger, teachers, education, abuse, children, crime

Technorati: How it works and why you need it

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:39:36 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Nice "Technorati Bootcamp."

Clip Source: courtneytuttle.com

Your Technorati authority rating is simple, it is the number of unique blogs that have linked to you. The authority rating for this site is 94; this means that 94 different blogs have linked to me so far. As my authority rating goes up, my Technorati ranking goes down. Remember that down is good for your Technorati ranking.

Many advertisers will decide how much to pay you based on what your Technorati ranking is.

Since your Technorati ranking is based 100% on links from other blogs, you need to get links from other blogs! Here are some of the easiest and most effective ways to get those links:

Use the D-List.

Use blog carnivals.

Work relentlessly on your site. The more value you can provide, the more you will get linked to.

Tags: blog traffic, blogging, technorati

Why Blog Commenting is Important

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:50:58 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Good general overview of the importance of blog commenting.

Clip Source: www.beginnerblogging.com

When launching a blog one of the key components to the effort is interacting with other blogs in your given niche. You can write all the content you want, but with seven million blogs you’re going to need to get out and communicate in order for people to find you.

One key method for doing that is commenting.

Here are some key benefits to blog commenting:

The ability to share your opinion and develop yourself as a niche expert.

Commenting shows you’re going to be active in a community and willing to offer up thoughts.

The authors of the sites on which you comment will be intrigued and oftentimes visit your site to see what you’re all about. Thus, your readership has a chance to grow.

If you’re one of the first to comment on a very popular post, other readers will follow the link to your site and see who was on top of the latest popular story.

Tags: blogging, social networking, blog traffic

Making the Most of RSS

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:37:45 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Excellent article on using RSS and optimizing your feed reading.

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

Seven tips for making the most of your RSS reader, from simple to more complex.

1. Oversubscribe

Read what you can and don't worry about the rest. The chances that you'll see something worthwhile in a feed are far, far higher if you've subscribed to it than they would have been if you hadn't.

2. Try a River of News View

3. Use Multiple Services

Some feeds are really important and are best read outside of the bulky environment of a feed reader.

4. Try Out a Desktop Reader

5. Tag Items to Share

If instead you offer people a FeedBurner feed of shared items, you can plug any RSS feed in as the source for that feed. Bookmark items "toshare" in Del.icio.us and grab the RSS that tag in your account produces - publish that through Feedburner and you can know how many people have subscribed.

6. Learn about OPML

7. Try Out Additional Services

There are so many different ways you can use RSS feeds. Here are a few of my favorites, try experimenting and you'll get more out of the medium.

Tags: rss, feeds, feedreader, reader

Social Media's Favorite Type of Post

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:52:02 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.problogger.net

If you’re a regular user of social media, you’ll notice that big lists of resources, tools and articles are consistently popular. In fact, they seem to be social media’s favorite type of blog post.

Pick great resources

Don’t sacrifice quality for a big headline.

Don’t recommend anything you haven’t read/tried/explored yourself.

The headline is probably the most important part of your resource list. Headlines for these types of posts tend to be most effective when they include a number. When it comes to numbers, bigger numbers are not always better. Certain formulas (like 100, 101, and so on) can seem gimmicky to web users who see them often. If your target audience is tech-savvy they are likely to be quite jaded by over-used headline formulas.

Readers are not interested in the list itself, but in what it has the potential to do for them.

Tags: blogging, social media

21 Things To Remember

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:33:35 GMT

clipped by: Sorgalim
clipper's remarks: 19. Success is getting up one more time.

20. Now is the most interesting time of all.

21. When things go wrong.....don't go with them.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.

2. Most people will be about as happy, as they decide to be.

3. Others can stop you temporarily, but only you can do it permanently.

4. Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.

5. Success stops when you do.

6. When your ship comes in.... make sure you are willing to unload it.

7. You will never have it all together.

8. Life is a journey...not a destination. Enjoy the trip!

9. The biggest lie on the planet: When I get what I want I will be happy.

10. The best way to escape your problem is to solve it.

11. I've learned that ultimately, 'takers' lose and 'givers' win.

12. Life's precious moments don't have value, unless they are shared.

13. If you don't start, it's certain you won't arrive.

14. We often fear the thing we want the most.

15. He or she who laughs......lasts.

16. Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.

17. Look for opportunities...not guarantees.

18. Life is what's coming....not what was.

Tags: remember, things, success, opportunities

Find Tons of Info in the EDU Underground

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:34:02 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Useful info, especially when applied to homeschooling.

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Little appreciated outside the world of academia, there are literally thousands of .edu sites bursting with incredibly useful and interesting information and resources. Most of these sites won't pop up to the surface of the average search engine quest, and so they wait, neglected and underused...until now.

In addition to all these rich resources, you can mine the web for much, MUCH more simply by using this search string in Google: site:.edu "insert subject here". Just tweak that as needed and you'll be able to find a ton more than I could ever have time to write here.

Tags: education, web search, homeschooling

Delicious Stumbles Firefox Extension Saves You Time

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:11:05 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: internetducttape.com

Delicious and StumbleUpon are two different social networks that let you save websites you like. Delicious Stumbles is a time saving tool for the Firefox web browser that will let you update your StumbleUpon account easily when you bookmark pages on delicious.

If you use both delicious and StumbleUpon then this script can save you at least a minute every time you submit a site. How many sites do you submit a week? Install it now.

Tags: firefox, add-ons, extensions, delicious, stumbleupon

Guide to Networking With Bloggers

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:54:14 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Excellent tips to keep in mind for blogging and life.

Clip Source: www.problogger.net

Here is a list of everything you need to be a successful networker. Remember, bloggers are all people, just like you. With that said, this is not just a guide for networking with bloggers, but with people as a whole.

Have the best intentions.

Respect their time.

Be genuine with them.

Give more than you take.

Keep them at eye level.

Have unshakable confidence, and ask.

Be presentable on search.

Treat them the way they want to be treated.

The Tools

Comment on their blog.

Trackback conversations.

The short e-mail.

Skype it or cell it.

Networking events.

Other tools.

Tags: blogging, social networking, marketing

Increase Sociability Plugin

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:04:39 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Nice idea for a plugin, and you can edit the text that shows. Sweet.

Clip Source: www.preblogging.com

Basically what happens is it checks the refer (what page the visitor is coming from) and if it matches either Digg.com or StumbleUpon.com then it will simply welcome the user and ask them to give you a positive vote if they like the page.

The plugin only serves as a reminder to help people to either digg or stumble your post. It is still up to the user to click that icon to give you the vote. Increase Sociability is just a smart way to increase your traffic from social media sites, and ultimately to increase your visitors/sales/revenue !

Tags: blog traffic, social networking, blogging, social bookmarking

Find the Perfect Name for Your Blog

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 02:48:56 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.blogherald.com

Finding a good name for your site can be very difficult.

Here are some ways to find a memorable name that will stand out from the crowd:

1. Be unique - Make up a word (like Dooce), leave out a vowel (like Flickr), or deliberately misspell a word (like Pownce). Your name can work well, especially if it’s not an extremely common name, but only use it if you’re not planning on selling the site in the future.

2. Be amusing - I ran across a Jewish scholar’s blog called the “Velveteen Rabbi” some time ago, and I have never forgotten the name. Use a play on words to put a smile on the face of visitors and they’re more likely to find you again.

3. Be odd - Sounds like strange advice maybe, but the goal here is to be memorable. Defective Yeti is an extremely odd name for a site, but you’re unlikely to forget it quickly.

4. Hack a domain name

del.icio.us and blo.gs are good examples of hacked domain names.

Tags: optional. separate by commas., blogging

10 Tips for More Productive Blogging

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:16:42 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Good ideas for time management in general.

Clip Source: www.dailyblogtips.com

Many bloggers, myself included, struggle to balance the needs of this hobby with the needs of our loved ones. Being productive can make that task a little bit easier.

1. Write more than you publish.

2. Turn off auto-notifiers.

3. Check email less, deal with more.

4. Write multiple posts when you’re feeling creative.

5. Use your feed reader as an all-purpose inbox.

6. Process different tasks in batches.

8. Keep a reserve of post ideas.

9. Spend less time reading feeds.

10. Sketch out your posts before filling in the detail.

Sometimes we spend so much time trying to decide what we should do that nothing at all gets done.

7. Develop a ‘To Post’ list.

Tags: blogging, productivity

5 Steps to Better Social Media Marketing

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:16:02 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.dailyblogtips.com

If you want to be more effective with driving traffic to your website or blog with social media, here are five steps that are sure to improve your results.

One of the first things you will need to do is find a few sites that will work well for you. Of course the larger sites like Digg and StumbleUpon are popular choices because of the large traffic volumes that they send. But if you are looking for sites that can send high quality traffic, first look for niche-specific social media sites.

If you hope to ever become a true authority on social media, you’ll have to implement consistent use.

find a topic that is of particular interest to your readers and present it in a way that also appeals to social media users. For example, social media users like lists, breaking news, photos, controversy, and informative topics.

4. Networking and Helping Others

5. Conversion

Tags: blogging, social networking, marketing