A little over a month ago, we reported this story “Facebook In Early Stage Search Engine Tests?” and detailed some of the changes we were noticing. Well, today, based on another tip from bloggers at All Facebook, we can confirm that Facebook is indeed displaying ‘liked’ news content in it’s search result drop down. In fact, further to what All Facebook reported, they are also displaying content shared by your network of friends that matches the keywords you are sharing.
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog, news

For the beginner, the blog learning curve can be steep. As well as all the technical and blog visibility issues, there are questions about focus, content types and research, and of course reaching readers.
You’re plugging away, day after day, and getting little in the way of recognisable success. How can you stay motivated during what can be a very trying time? Here are the techniques I use.
1. Do what you love.
Staying motivated is a whole lot easier when you’re constantly thinking about, and dealing with, the topic you blog about. If you love your topic, you’ll find it easier to think up content ideas, engage with readers, and establish a warm and welcoming voice that encourages rapport and develops readership.
2. Take it one step at a time.
When you start a blog, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the things you feel you should be doing to help it grow. Realise up front that your blog isn’t likely to be an overnight super-success and pace yourself. Instead of focusing on what you haven’t done yet, spend time each week assessing the things you have done, and considering ways to build on those results.
If you’re going to avoid burnout, you need to be kind to yourself. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to tell yourself it’s too hard, you don’t have time, and to give up.
3. Plan, plan, plan.
If you haven’t already, develop a flexible, but clear plan of attack for building up your blog’s content and reach. A focused plan will […] (more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

The Isreali start-up AOL bought three years ago to compete in the Q&A market has been rebranded as AOL Answers this week. The site is similar to Answer.com, Yahoo Answers and Ask Answers.
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Only two years ago, the Associated Press tried to stop bloggers from using their content. Threatening to charge sites that used their content and demaned that The Drudge Reports pull headlines and story briefs from their site. But now AP is singing a different song - saying this week that they will credit bloggers for any stories they break.
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Seems the privacy advocates see Google as ‘evil’. Or at least the animated cartoon aired by Watchdog on the Times Square jumbotron suggested that yesterday. The clip below shows Google CEO Eric Schmidt gathering information from children as they attempt to buy ice cream from his Google truck.
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

If you haven’t already seen it YouTube has recently added two targeting features which enable advertisers to have more control on what videos their ads are placed on. Age restriction and video or channel URL restriction. Age restriction is not a self service feature, and will require you to work with your official Youtube representative but URL restriction is a feature you can enable yourself.
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that as this post goes live I’ll be heading to the airport to head to warmer parts of Australia for a couple of weeks break. The bags are packed, the house sitter has the key, the tickets are bought and most importantly….. the blog is scheduled to keep proving you with great content.
Everytime I go away for a break I’m confronted with the choice of either letting the blog sit idle for a couple of weeks or to work hard for the week or two before going to make sure that content keeps flowing. I’ve never really been able to bring myself to let things stand idle – so this week I’ve worked hard at getting enough posts up and ready to go (across ProBlogger and dPS I have 60 posts scheduled – it was a big job!).
The vast majority of them are guest posts. While a few of you may be disappointed that you’ll not be hearing from me for a week or two – I actually think it’s a massive opportunity for the ProBlogger community to hear from some fresh voices on some topics that I would never have come up with myself.
Here’s a screen grab of the upcoming schedule (including a few that already have gone up). Some of them are a little cryptic as I wrote them more for my own benefit and didn’t intend to share this – but hopefully it gives a little insight […] (more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Guest Post by Ross Hudgens of Billy.com.
Making money as a freelance content writer isn’t easy. If you aren’t running your own blog or website, turning content into cash can be a difficult thing. But there’s opportunity out there – you just have to try a little harder than normal to find it.
One of the best places to look is the Problogger job board. Here, potential employers are looking for people like you – writers serious about their craft, with a strong content-creation skillset that often develops from reading a website like this.
Because of these potential employer’s high standards for Problogger readers, this won’t be the kind of cheap, outsourced content creation you’ll have to scrap up pennies and quarters from – it’ll be real, well-paid writing gigs with some of the best and biggest websites and content hubs on the internet.
Of course, with better gigs come higher standards – so you, as a potential applicant, need to spice up your resume and take note of the intimate details that’ll make your application pop.
How I Found a Content Writer on Problogger
My friend at another company recently created a posting for a content writer on Problogger and told me about his success. As a Marketing Manager at a new company with many quality content development needs, I decided to create a posting as well.
Overall, I was rather impressed with the quality of applicant, but what also shocked me were the glaring problems with many of […] (more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Blog World and New Media Expo is a fantastic event for bloggers held every October in Las Vegas.
This year there will be a full day of ProBlogger training in a ‘ProBlogger Track’ on the Thursday. Yesterday the full details of that track’s sessions were released on the BWE site.
The four sessions through the day are based around 4 Pillars of ProBlogging that Chris Garret and I have been working on for a future resource here at ProBlogger. In our view these 4 pillars are all crucial foundations in building profitable blogs – it’s not just about one or two of them, all come together and make a blog a more powerful thing.
The day in vegas is also very similar in content to what we recently put on in the sold out ProBlogger Training day here in Melbourne.
Here are the four pillars and session times:
Creating Killer Content: 9.45-1045am (Presented by Chris Garrett)
Chris Garrett walks attendees through principles of creating compelling content that will draw readers into a blog and get them excited about passing it onto their network./b>
Finding Readers for Your Blog: 11am-12pm (Presented by Darren Rowse)
What’s the point of great content if nobody is reading it? Darren Rowse has jam packed his session full of teaching and tips on ensuring that your blog is read… by more than your Mom! (more…)

Technorati Tags: blog

Today Apple launched Ping. You can get the full story on ClickZ who covered the announcement. Were you expecting apple to launch a music social network today?
Click to read the rest of this post…

(more…)

Technorati Tags: blog