I hate bloggers that try to impress by using unobvious acronyms. This can make an article and author look more impressing than they really are, but results in the reader either ignoring the blog post because he doesn’t understand the material or spending time looking up definitions that even Google doesn’t have an immediate answer for.
Quite often, the authors intent was too look smart. This is a form of intellectual violence and an indication that the blogger doesn’t know how to communicate.
On Twitter, this problem is inevitable, as we try to communicate in 140 characters. When blogging, it’s simply a knock on the author.

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

In this post Jeff Chandler takes a look at the future of blogging.
Every Wednesday, I publish a new interview on BloggerTalks.com and as part of the interview process, there is one particular question which is asked to each individual that I interview which is “What Is The Future Of Blogging“? Well, for this weeks installment on Problogger, I thought I would compile the answers I’ve received thus far. At the end of the article, feel free to contribute by leaving a comment explaining what you think the future of blogging will be.
Christina Warren:
Microblogging (Twitter, Friendfeed, Tumbler, et. al.) is already changing personal sites and blogs — I think that will continue. I also think that blogs will continue to become more interactive, more immediate and that video will continue to grow in importance. I think the hard part about video is that for anyone wanting to do anything other than the stare at the webcam in bad lighting YouTube confessional, there are skills and techniques that are necessary to its success.
Mobile blogging and mobile communication is also certainly going to continue to take off. The iPhone has played a huge role in that and Google’s Android platform will help push that as well.
Steven Hodson:
I think blogging is definitely here to stay. Hell it hasn’t even really hit the mainstream yet as far as readership so the marketplace is still to be developed. I also think that over the next few years we will see a real amalgamation of heritage media […] Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

In today’s guest post Trisha from Ideas for Women shares some lessons that she learned from the US Presidential Election.
I followed this year’s U.S. presidential election pretty closely on T.V. and also volunteered for one of the candidates. Over I time I began to notice some parallels between running a successful campaign and a successful blog.
I don’t plan to ever run for president - but I would like to have a more successful blog. I would also like to share what I learned and hope that it will be helpful to other bloggers.
Image by BohPhoto
1. You need a story
Both of the presidential candidates and their running mates had a story. John McCain was a P.O.W., Sarah Palin, a hockey mom. Joe Biden was from Scranton, Pennsylvania and stuttered as kid. Barack Obama’s story is that he is the “son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas”.
The details of the stories don’t really matter. What matters is how they /framed/ their story - their story had to be everyone else’s story - a story people could relate to.
John McCain was a guy who loved his country and was willing to do whatever it took to defend it - just like many Americans have done or would be willing to do. Sarah Palin, a mom with many of the same concerns of other American moms across the country. Joe Biden had many obstacles growing up - but overcame them and is still a down to earth guy […] Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Today Jeff Chandler shares with us how FireFox 3 can be a great tool for bloggers.
If there is one thing that sets FireFox apart from any other web browser, it would have to be the third party support in the form of themes and extensions. There are so many extensions available for the browser, you can virtually do just about anything. As I become more entrenched as a blogger online, I’ve started to transform FireFox into more than just a browser,  it has become my ultimate blogging toolbox. The following twelve FireFox extensions will give you a head start on turning FireFox into your own personal blogging toolbox.
Many Google Services In One - These days, it seems as though Google has a bazillion services. Having individual buttons for each service in FireFox would not only be cumbersome but it would also take up valuable screen real estate. Thankfully, there is an extension which enables access to all of the Google Services from one button called Gbutts. After installing this extension, you can configure which Google Services show up in the drop down menu, allowing you to only see the ones you actively use.
In Browser Feed Reader - I use FeedDemon as my stand-alone FeedReader of choice, but I also use one within FireFox called SageToo. I use this extension primarily to keep tabs on forums I am a member of. Since I need to have the browser open to reply to a forum post or start a new thread, having […] Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Today Life Coach Tim Brownson from A Daring Adventure explores 6 tips to get your mindset right when approaching blogging.

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

How can I prepare my blog for a recession or economic downturn?

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Copyright © 2008 Stephen Cronin. Visit the original article at http://www.scratch99.com/2008/08/the-curse-of-the-blogger/.
I recently left a comment on the blog of my friend Terence Chang, that I feel is worthy of further exploration. It discusses a common phenomenon that seems to be a danger to many bloggers and which I’ve come to call the curse of the blogger.
No, it’s not the syndrome of bloggers running out of steam at the six month mark and giving up, just before their blog starts moving. In fact, it’s the opposite: bloggers diversifing and trying to do too much.
The Seed
When reading Terence’s post on the challenges and opportunities he’s facing with his blog, I was struck by the following words:

I know my readers tend to spend less time on reading my blog post. I know. I know. There are many reasons that people don’t tend to spend too much time on reading blog post.

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Copyright © 2008 Stephen Cronin. Visit the original article at http://www.scratch99.com/2008/05/borderline-spammers-beware-use-keywordluv/.
This is just a quick post to warn the borderline spammers that leave comments here: If you just leave keywords in the name field, I’ll remove the link! You must use the KeywordLuv syntax: yourname@your keywords.
In the past, I’ve been pretty easy on people leaving keywords in the name field, but that ends now that I’ve provided the KeywordLuv functionality.
I have no problem with people leaving keywords in the name field, in fact you’re welcome to, but you must leave your name too. Don’t worry, you’ll get your link juice, as KeywordLuv will strip your name out of the anchor text.
If you don’t use the KeywordLuv syntax, I’ll remove the link and you’ll see something like this:

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Copyright © 2008 Stephen Cronin. Visit the original article at http://www.scratch99.com/2008/05/back-in-the-seat/.
Regular readers will have noticed that posts have been pretty sparse over the last couple of months. For those wondering about the reason, we recently moved from China to Australia. This has been a big move for us and has meant that I’ve had almost no time for blogging.
I’ve been able to check for comment spam every couple of days, but haven’t had time for writing posts or replying to comments, let alone keeping up with my regular reads or working on my WordPress plugins.
I didn’t announce our move before it occurred, because both hackers and spammers love an unattended blog. It wasn’t really unattended for long, maybe a week at most, but it looked unattended.
Service will slowly start to resume, but I may not catch up on responding to all the comments and I may need to declare feed bankruptcy. I’m still busy organising things and settling in to my new job, so it will still be slow for the foreseeable future. But at least I’m back in the seat!
Changing Focus
With the change in country, it’s a good time to refocus the blog. I originally intended to write about web development, highlighting things I learnt while working on my other projects. Of course, I got side tracked and wrote about blogging and WordPress and the other projects were abandoned.
In future, you’ll probably see more of the following:

WordPress (especially plugins): This has emerged as the main theme of the blog. […] Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog

Copyright © 2008 Stephen Cronin. Visit the original article at http://www.scratch99.com/2008/02/new-wordpress-plugin-localcurrency/.
I’ve been pretty quiet for the last couple of weeks, mainly due to offline endeavours. However, I did find time to finish off a new WordPress plugin called LocalCurrency, that allows you to show currency values to your readers in their local currency.
For example: If a post contains 10 yuan, a user from Australia will see 10 yuan (AUD$1.53), while a US user will see 10 yuan (USD$1.39).
How LocalCurrency Works
LocalCurrency determines the reader’s country (via IP address), gets the current exchange rate from Yahoo! Finance, then calculates the equivalent value in the readers currency for any values in the post. It then updates the post so the reader can see their currency, in brackets after the original value.
All of this is done using ‘AJAX’ techniques so that page load times aren’t affected. Readers can change their currency via a selection box if they desire.
Where Do I Get LocalCurrency?
See the LocalCurrency plugin home page for more information about LocalCurrency, a live example, and to download the plugin.
Why Is It On JobsInChina?
There is one big difference about this plugin, compared to my other plugins. LocalCurrency is a JobsInChina production. That means I’m hosting  it on the JobsInChina.com website. There are several reasons for this:

Read more »

Technorati Tags: blog