Have blogspot blogs?Then read this.

I am sorry to start the April month on a slightly alarming note. Again, I read a blog post about blogspot blogs getting deleted or suddenly disappearing from the dashboard.

Since I started reading such things I started building blogs on WP platform and getting hosted outside of Google. I love blogspot and I find it very easy to maintain the blogs. I am finding it a lot difficult to manipulate WP.

Oh yes, getting back to the blog post on blogspot blogs getting deleted, there are several reasons sited and the most probable of them is the increasing number of spam blogs and blogs with sponsored post.

In case if your blogspot blog is deleted, how to reclaim it is explained in the blog post.

Read the details here.

Want more traffic to your blog?

Who will answer 'No' to this question?

But have I blogged about Women Bloggers Webring already? Oh, I am too lazy to check among my blog posts. So here it is.

"WebRing is a pioneer in social networking. Since 1994, our members have created over 40,000 communities, visited by three million people monthly. Join our community of networks today and start attracting more traffic to your site!"

Though I am a member in the ring, I don't know whether this blog is being visited by other members of the ring.

However, if you want to join the women bloggers ring, click below.

New Version of WordPress 2.5 is Released!

There are good news came to the WordPress Blogging Platform fans. New software WordPress 2.5 has been released today, marking significant improvements and bringing new functional features to the bloggers. Among the obvious software enhanced features are multi-file uploading, one-click plug-in upgrades, built-in galleries, customizable dashboard, salted passwords and cookie encryption, media library, a WYSIWYG that doesn’t mess with your code, concurrent post editing protection, full-screen writing, and search that covers posts and pages. One of the biggest changes is related to better appearance of the administration backend, which is described as being a “Cleaner, faster, less cluttered dashboard.” It is now widget friendly, and users can include items such as stats, matching the functionality of MovableType Blogging Platform.

Some User Features Details:

Dashboard Widgets- the dashboard home page includes different widgets, showing fun stats about your posting, latest comments, people linking to you, new and popular plug-ins, and WordPress news. All the widgets are customizable for the administrator’s convenience.

Multi-file upload with progress bar - in the previous software release, uploading large files or multiple files was a long and unreliable process. User could upload just one image at a time. Now you can select a whole of folder images or music or videos at once and software will monitor the progress of each upload.

EXIF extraction - if you upload JPEG files with EXIF metadata (like camera make and model, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, et al.) software will record all the data into custom fields you can use in your template.

Search posts and pages - in the previous version search used to cover just posts, now it includes pages as well, and new themes can style or sort pages differently in presented results.

Tag management - you can now add, rename, delete, and managed your tags from inside WordPress, with no additional plug-ins.

Password strength meter - software reports the strength of your password, helping you to pick a secure one.

Concurrent editing protection - a big improvement achieved in the editing abilities for multi-author blogs. Now if you open a post at the moment when someone else is editing, WordPress locks it and prevents you from saving your changes until the other person is done.

Plug-in upgrades - automatic downloading and installing the upgrade for plug-ins you use. Depending on your host setup, you may, however, be asked for your FTP password.

Visual post editor- Authors express the improvement to the editor by the statement “it doesn’t mess with your code anymore.” Software is now using version 3.0 of TinyMCE, which ensures a better compatibility with Safari, and improves integration and interaction with complex HTML.

Built-in galleries- when you take advantage of multi-file upload to upload a bunch of photos, you can much easier embed picture galleries into your page. It will display all your thumbnails and captions linking each picture to a page where people can comment on the individual photos.

The software downloading link: http://wordpress.org/download/

A brief video tutorial for some of the features:

Brief Overview of WordPress 2.5

Sources and Additional Reading:

http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-brecker/

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/03/catch-a-sneak-p.html

Building a new blog.

I keyed in "News Blog" in the Google's blog search engine and I got an astonishing 2,262,078 blogs are in that niche.

I asked a question to myself:"A little over two million blogs are being operated on news alone, for what purpose"? I firmly believe 'money' is the sole reason. And why not? If there is money to be made in news oriented blogs, why not build at least one and try it out.

I am yet to try building a news based blog because I should learn it first. And what better source than Dosh Dosh's blog that can teach us?

Here is a splendid blog post on "How to build a successful new blog" by Dosh Dosh.
I am going to read the article slowly as there is so much information. I am sure I will build a news blog in the next 72 hours.

Wearing luxury watches.

Wearing a watch in the old fashioned way gives a sort of dignified look in my opinion. When did I last wear a watch? It might be fifteen years since I wore a watch. I would not call it a luxury watch but it was different and attracted appreciation.

By the way, can anyone tell me what luxury watches are? A watch is worn only to know whether you are going to be late to your office-isn’t it? I am definitely going to get some acidic comment for this post.

My son is crazy about luxury watches. Do you know that he has 13 watches, neatly arranged on his study table? To my knowledge, he bought two splendid looking watches from Watchesandbeyond.com, a leading watches and jewelry store online.

Hey, what is the time now?

Earn by placing Urbanread widget.

Urban Read is a sort of news aggregator. They offer the bloggers an opportunity from their widget that has to be placed on the blog.

You are allowed to insert your AdSense ID in your account. Based on the impression your widget gets, Google ads with your AdSense is rotated throughout their network of publishes who have placed the widget in their blogs.

The website is not clear about the ratio of AdSense revenue sharing. In fact, the website could have been more clear. Though the concept is unique, I am afraid it might not encourage many bloggers.
I am not interested.

Inspired by: Share AdSense

Block the fat

The film on the Star Movies channel was absolutely engrossing. Watching the movie, I was able to forget my nagging headache. The screenplay was too good and fast..

The background music was just perfect and added to the tempo.

I read a line on the back of a T-shirt of a woman that made everybody in my home burst with laughter. The word was ‘LipoSeduction’ and I am sure you can guess how I read it.

Immediately after the movie got over, I rushed to my desktop, logged on to the net and keyed in ‘LipoSeduction’ in the Google search box. From the search results, I found out that LipoSeduction 2250 is the perfect addition to users of Orovo who love the occasional "cheat meal".

Ah! A cheat meal? How aptly named!

LipoSeduction 2250 is said to contain a fat blocker, carbohydrate blocker, and an appetite suppressant. It’s designed to be taken before "cheat meals" so you don't absorb all the calories and don’t feel guilty about cheating your health plan.

Huge resource for Wordpress themes.

I spent 7 full days to select a theme for my new wordpress based blog. During this frantic searching, I neglected even my homely routines and earned the wrath of everyone in my house.

But, I did not want to compromise on my choice. At last, after searching and searching, I selected one but not yet started building the content.

Now, after the 7 grueling days, I saw a blog post on Blog Badly titled "The Absolute best free resources for wordpress themes". I wonder I missed out on this blog post. What I liked in this blog post is the remark beside each resource by the blogger. It is indicative to what you can expect from a particular resource.

Well, at least, you can save time on searching for free WP themes.

25 Popular Free Image Storage Hosts for Bloggers

With tight competition in the blogosphere for visitors and their attention, bloggers need to consider not just providing a fresh unique and interesting content, but also provide blog posts design to grab visitors’ attention. One of the elements of this post design enhancement is images. There are multiple reasons to use pictures inside the posts. Among them:

• Visualizing the topic of discussion;
• Grabbing readers’ attention (great for making your RSS feed readers stop and read);
• Drawing people’s eye down a post beyond the first few lines;
• Illustrating examples;
• Giving your blog a more personal touch;
• Engaging the emotions and senses of readers;
• Giving posts more authority.
  

In most blogging platforms, you can load images directly to your host. However, there are many advantages of posting your images at the special image hosting servers. Among them:

• Image files, stored on third-party sites (many of them offer free services), can be used anywhere you might need them: blogs, social networking sites, message boards, etc. If you load images, for example, on Blogger, you cannot use them on any other location besides BlogSpot domain.
• Storing images on offsite account saves disk space from your blog hosting account.
• Very strong advantage is that it saves your bandwidth from the blog hosting account and uses the third-party bandwidth. So, be sure that you images host allows hot linking; otherwise, it will be useless for you.
• It is easy because you get various codes that can be used on blogs, forums, message boards, and social communities.
• Several images hosting sites even are offering you share of the ads-generated income, so by doing what you need to do for your blog design, you get additional passive income from images, stored on the server, exposure.

For your convenience, I have compiled the list of 25 most popular free image hosting sites on RateItAll with brief description, access links, and rating:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-25965-free-images-hosting-for-bloggers.aspx

Additional Reading:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/11/13/using-images-to-take-your-posts-to-a-new-level/

http://www.tomrafteryit.net/adding-images-to-your-blog-post/

http://antbag.com/how-to-position-images-in-blog-posts/

Blogging Cents.

I read daily the feeds from Technorati. I configured it to read in my Google reader.

I clicked on a link that read, "Blogging with Cents ~ A Blog We Luv".

I read a review about blogging with cents and when I visited that blog, I instantly remembered it and I also remembered having communicated with the blogger Lori very recently.

The review of Loretta was frank and she appreciated Lori for her simplicity in language and she pointed out to several great articles.

I too would like to point out an article on "Get paid to blog list". The list content is familiar to me and I have signed with almost all of them already.

For bloggers who are looking to ways of earning money by blogging, this list could be very useful.

Where have all the gold gone?

A very long time ago, I wrote an article titled ‘The mysterious month end’ after pondering over the shortage of cash faced by everyone during the month end.

Now, a similar question cropped up in my mind. ‘Where have all the gold gone?’ Why this big spurt in the price of gold? The bullion market veterans offer various opinions. The majority of the opinions point out to the demand supply gap in gold. But I beg to differ.

According to World Gold Council, 60% of the current gold reserve is held by the Governments of the U.S. Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany. But what does it imply?

Oh, well, let us not explore further the world economy and its impact on the price of gold. Let us be wise by going with the present bullion market trend and try to enhance our gold reserve as much as possible. There is an undisputed fact that the beauty of a gold bar lies in its proven ability to diversify investments, protect wealth and preserves one’s purchasing power.

Monex.com is the best resource for buying gold and other precious metals. They are highly experienced precious metals dealer in the world and the Americans trust them completely for the quality of the gold.

Newborn baby clothes.

Surprisingly we don’t require a great skill in selecting gifts for newborn babies. I hope you catch my point. Anything goes; everything is accepted without any grudge.

When the baby doesn’t protest, why would the parent complain? Have you thought on these lines? If not, take up the matter with the complaining mother.

I know of an online (Polkadot Patch Boutique) shop that sells everything for newborn babies that include baby clothes, gifts for babies, toys and organic clothes and diaper bags. I wish I could show you some samples here but they won’t let me copy images from their website.

PolkadotPatch.com is your ultimate shop where you can buy anything and everything for your babies.

BlogCatalog goes social and absolutely viral.

If only you spend more time in Blog Catalog, you will realize its immense potential to the promotion of all your blogs.

They keep coming out with enhancements that enables its users to make use of all the features in an enjoyable way. For example, I liked their 'groups' from the launch date and visiting them once in a way. I should visit more frequently.

Then their 'discussions' section is also participated actively giving me a chance to learn hundreds of things.

Now here is their latest announcement:
"In the next couple of days, BlogCatalog is launching a social Dashboard beta, a new feature that displays your latest activities across many social networks — Digg, Flickr, Last.fm, Twitter, YouTube, and many others.

That means automatic cross-networking and promotion right from your personal profile page. It also means that the your post updates, Twitter comments, Digg submissions, and other activities will appear on the Dashboard of all your BlogCatalog friends, and maybe their friends too. This is the kind of networking that can make posts go viral".

I feel with this feature, Blog Catalog compels the attention of bloggers and making it as the unbeatable leader in Bloggers' Community.

Bringing more traffic to your blog - March 21, 2008 - 3rd Ed.

Welcome to the Third, March 21, 2008 edition of "Bringing more traffic to your blog" Blog Carnival. Some statistics: Submitted Articles - 126. Published Articles - 65. I want to thank all the authors contributing to the issue. Some articles were excluded from the review, since their topic of discussion did not match the main target of the carnival. I am sorry, that not all submissions were accepted, as some of the excluded articles carried a significant value.

James D. Brausch presents 24 Hour Special: New Copywriting Procedure posted at Internet Business Blog.

Stephen Dean presents Using Amazon.com For Market Research posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Jimmy Sansi presents Guaranteed Traffic Today Using These 7 Simple Methods posted at The Kaizen Business.

Andrew Erickson presents Email Marketing for Ecommerce - Part I: What Is It? Why Do It? posted at WebSite Werx.

aruntheace presents How to hit Digg’s front page? posted at www.aruntheace.com.

Sarah Paine presents Changing Permalink Structure to Maximize SEO posted at Sarah Paine.

Bob Younce presents What is Search Engine Optimization and Why You Need to Understand It posted at The Writing Journey, saying, "Bob Younce takes a look at the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and why it matters to your blogging and other Internet writing."

Don D. Morrison presents Discover Immediate Online Blog Traffic? Or Maybe Overnight! posted at dondmorrison.com.

Sarah Paine presents Are You Losing Out On Subscribers? posted at Sarah Paine.

Lin Burress presents 5 Ways To Make Your Blog Posts SCREAM For Attention posted at Telling It Like It Is.

Carol Bentley presents Apparently I am nuts. . . posted at Carol Bentley.

Sarah Paine presents Post Dating Blog Entries posted at Sarah Paine.

Brent Hodgson presents Increasing Blog Visitor Traffic posted at Brent Hodgson, Copywriter.

Mark Riffey presents Have you lost a customer today? posted at Business is Personal.

James D. Brausch presents Search Engine Ranking Case Study posted at Internet Business Blog.

Brian Terry presents Why You Need Long Tail Keywords posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Kenton Newby presents Simple Solutions For the Content Creation Roadblock Nearly All Online Business Owners Face posted at KentonNewby.com.

Jeremy Neal presents Will Blogged be More Than a Typical Blog Directory? posted at Lead Inspectors, saying, "If successful, Blogged could be a great source of free traffic for your blog."

Don D. Morrison presents Discover All The Online Company Marketing Links & Stats Worth Knowing! posted at dondmorrison.com.

Craig Andrews presents Do You Linkbait With Your Blog? posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Sabrina Jefferson presents How To Create Your Own Blog posted at Sabrina Jefferson.

Keith Goodrum presents Can Somebody Drive a Truck Through The Back Door Of Your WordPress Blog? posted at Keith Goodrum.

Holly Ord presents Menstrual Poetry Link Directory posted at Menstrual Poetry, saying, "Menstrual Poetry’s network is expanding with its very own link directory. Submit your websites, it’s a great way to gain Google PR."

Brian Terry presents How to tap into 60+ million highly responsive, targeted visitors posted at Big Selling Affiliates Blog.

Aaron Brandon presents Flooded With Links Back posted at Aaron Brandon.

Brian Terry presents 7 ?More? Big Selling Website Strategies That Boost Conversions posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Tim Gary presents Are Your Google Search Results Tainted? posted at Internet Success Bites.

Woman Tribune presents Social Media for Women and Utilizing sk*rt posted at Woman Tribune.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents How To Write Your First Paragraph posted at Rebecca Dean.

Cindy King presents Using Foreign Language E-Communication Tools posted at Get International Clients.

Sabrina Jefferson presents Internet Marketing Newbie Action Plan posted at Sabrina Jefferson.

Matthew Paulson presents The Realities of Blogging for Money » American Small Business News posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Terry Dean presents 8 Steps to Create Your Internet Business posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

iyabo oyawale presents How Can I Drive Targetted Traffic To My Blog? posted at Ask Iyabo Oyawale.com.

Brent Diggs presents The Secret to Writing Humor posted at Humor Blogging.

Christine presents Traditional Website vs Blog Format posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

Andrew Erickson presents No Phone Number For You! Part I posted at WebSite Werx.

Wakish presents Wonderful Blogging Ideas - How To Breed Them In Your Garden? => PART 1 posted at Wakish Wonderz.

Stephen Dean presents 3 Quick Rules For Writing A “P.S.” posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

cate3 presents Lessons learned from playing with polling widgets posted at Why Homeschool, saying, "Poll widget can make your blog more interesting and more inviting. They are easy to add. Henry shares his experience with using a variety of such widgets."

Craig Andrews presents Tips For A Great Autoresponder Campaign (Part 1) posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Brian Terry presents Your Website Traffic: 7 Crucial Reasons Why You Should Be ’Squidooing’ posted at Big Selling Website Design.

James Lee presents 3 Quick Reminders of What People REALLY Think of Your Site posted at Online Business Freedom.

Fred Black presents Search Engine Optimization - A Reader Asks My Opinion of Rasof posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..

Sarah Paine presents Is Your Site NeoPet Sticky? posted at Sarah Paine.

Matthew Paulson presents 3 Benefits of Blogging for Small Businesses » American Small Business News posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Bill Mcintosh presents Google Penalizing Slow Websites posted at Bill McIntosh.

Kenton Newby presents One of the Best Content Sources for Infoproduct Creators and Affiliates posted at KentonNewby.com.

Steve Oliphant presents Easy method to take notes posted at Steve Oliphant’s Musings.

Marcus Hochstadt presents Why Some Should Change The Permalink Structure posted at Marcus Hochstadt.

Cindy King presents 4 Ideas To Get Your Website International posted at Get International Clients.

mmter presents 17 Plugins to Make your Blogging Life Easier posted at Me Myself and I.

James D. Brausch presents Visitor Values posted at Internet Business Blog.

Kathryn presents 25 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Blog posted at 25 Ways to Drive Traffic to your Blog Comments, saying, "From the basic to the complex, here are twenty five tips for getting more traffic to your blog."

Maureen presents One Simple Change You Can Make to Increase Repeat Visitors posted at 5 Star Blog.

hank presents How do I publicize my blog? A personal finance blog’s lifeline from “start-up” to “staple” posted at My Investing Blog.

Erica Douglass presents How I Tripled My Blog’s Traffic in Two Months posted at erica.biz - Erica Douglass challenges you to change your life! What is holding you back from your dreams?, saying, "A complete four-step action plan to tripling your blog’s traffic. All details included!"

Alex M presents RSS Content Builder Review or 5 Advantages of Feeds for eBusiness posted at We talk on making money on the Internet.

blue skelton presents 10 Ways to Make a Name for Yourself Blogging posted at Blue Skelton Publications, saying, "I read this post about people who give up on blogs. I want to dispute the fact that you can’t make a name for yourself in blogging overnight. I did it in a single weekend. On the weekend of the Vanessa Hudgen’s nude scandal, I not only became a B-List Blogger, I also became an SEO specialist. So, I wanted to show you some ways that you can make the chance of making a name for yourself in blogging overnight, less rare."

Brian Terry presents Who Else Wants This Free Pay Per Click Website Traffic? posted at Big Selling Website Design.

James Lee presents How to Legally Steal from the Masters of Copywriting to Create Eyeball Gripping Headlines posted at Online Business Freedom.

Craig Andrews presents Outsourcing To Help Your Internet Business Grow posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Susan Tatum presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Business Technology Website posted at TechnoBuzz.

Robert Phillips presents A Better Article Marketing Solution? posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Robert Phillips presents How to Use Blog Carnivals to Increase Traffic posted at How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of bringing more traffic to your blog using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Yedda sent me a gift!

Yedda's Lior kept up his word. The gift, a light pink colored T-Shirt with Yedda's logo arrived from Cafepress.com.

I have no proper words to express my feelings of appreciation and gratitude. Man, what a big heart Lior has! It must have cost him about $30 or more.

And all I did was to make a blog post on Yedda and informed Yedda about it. I do things like that once in a way but none has responded like Yedda.

But I didn't expect anything from Yedda for blogging about them. The guiding principle behind my blogging is 'Do what you love and love what you do". Blogging is my passion and I simply love it just for the sake of blogging.

Thank you Lior. I owe you one.

Not all the comments are born equal, or how to respect your customer

Continuing a topic of using comments to increase you blog exposure, started in my previous post http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/03/comments-as-source-of-free-traffic-to.html, I want to look on that from other side. Comments, left by your readers on your blog, are even more valuable than the comments you are leaving on other blogs. Why? Very simple. You leave comments to improve your blog exposure, to get more rating and referring links. All that to get more potential visitors. But, reader of your blog, leaving you a comment, has already came. And not just came, but also read your post and is willing to spend his valuable time, sharing his thoughts on the article or asking related question. What might be better than that? Show your respect and appreciation - respond ASAP, giving your feedback and encouraging further communication.

Yesterday, I visited a Web Site ReapMoneyOnline , presenting list of the free High Page Rank Non-reciprocal Directories (directories that do not require link exchanges for posting blogs). I left a comment, asking authors (Jennie and Bong) their opinion, if they recommend submitting a blog to all of 100 presented directories, or there is a minimum PR, where the time investment is justifiable. They feedback was instant and complete: "Webmasters have different views on PR. In fact, a lot will choose hundreds of inbound links over a high PR because they bring in real targeted traffic (we click on a link because we think we can use what we will find at the other end). Some were also able to rank high in the SERPs for their chosen keywords even with a low PR. These are directories, which people also use to find websites related to the information they need (like the SEs). If they provide us dofollow links then we get 2 birds with 1 stone.
However, directory submission is only part of our link-building strategy. But yes, we are trying to get RMO into as many as possible over a period of time (going at a rate of 15-30 directories per week). Unfortunately, we haven’t done any ROI study on our link-building efforts.
The “minimum” PR depends on us and our goals. Some webmasters who flip sites work to get them to PR4 before selling. Others sell at PR7, which definitely takes longer but also fetches a higher price. For us, the higher it is, the better, since we’re pushing RMO as our flagship blog". As you see, blog owners spent their time and attention to give a very thoughtful answer, converting me as accidental visitor to the devoted visitor. With this attitude, I will be back soon.

Let's highlight what we can learn from this example:

1. Site has a valuable information, encouraging visitors participation. This is, definitely, a core of the successful blog.
2. Blog has disabled the nofollow tag, so every comment will result in link to your blog, improving your blog rating. An additional reason for people to visit the blog, read it, and leave feedbacks.
3. Authors do not passively enjoy incoming traffic, but activity communicate with their visitors, giving informative and instant recommendations. I noticed, that this particular case is not an exception. Every comment receives immediate reply.

As customer support manager in a High Tech company, I know, that it is good to find a new customer, but it is more valuable, if the customer comes to you again and again. Blogging should follow the same marketing rules, where respect for the client will be always appreciated and paid back.

Blog Digger sold.

I have not been using Blog Digger of late. It is not because of the lack of time but mainly because there is nothing new there.

Only today, I came to know about their tool bar and I just downloaded it. I will test drive it for a couple of weeks and then decide about its utility to my day to day work.

Mashable informed me through its feed that the popular RSS/Blog Search engine Blog Digger has been acquired by SonicMountain, which is the owner of podcasting service Odeo. Blogdigger’s aggregation and search technology will be integrated into Odeo, and you can see how it works already on Odeo’s new beta site. Blogdigger, a neat service but a bit forgotten in the wake of more successful competitors like Technorati, will continue to function as before, claims Greg.

Well, I don't think it will have an impact on us; we are mere users of various blogging tools. Personally, I don't even collect information about who own what.

But I never fail to read the feed of Mashable.com. It is the ultimate store house of information for me.

A flowery reunion.

Generally females don’t retain pre-marriage buddies for long. Guys stay in touch for several decades. I know my husband’s friends are in touch with him for nearly 40 years.

Being a female, I am no exception. In spite of this natural trait, I revived a contact and made an appointment to meet her yesterday. I remembered to order a bunch of wholesale flowers and arrange it to be delivered at my friend’s house. Fortunately her favorite peonies were available at my florist Fiftyflowers.com

Somehow I have developed a liking for the flowers of Ranunculaceae family. Peonies belong to that family.

When I reached her house, it was 4.30 PM. Those pink peonies already reached her and I saw them on the window sill. I was sure of the dependability of FiftyFlowers; they overnight express from the flower farms, where they are cut fresh, processed, and placed in bulk bundles.

My friend was all smiles when she me at the door and thanked me profusely for the flowers. Obviously, she was moved by my remembrance of her favorite flowers.

Comments as source of a free traffic to your blog

In the course of investigation of the possible ways of bringing more traffic to the blog, leaving comments on other people blogs popped out as an acknowledged legitimate way of getting more exposure to your own blog ( http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/01/6-advices-on-blog-posting-techniques.html)

In this post, I want to review the commenting features and commenting techniques to increase the possible benefits in more details.

1. Leaving informative comments. Comments leaving technique brings the best outcomes when your comments are informative. Do not simply say “Good post” unless you have nothing else to say and yet you want to complement and encourage the author for the post. Avoid posting unrelated comments, targeting just your own exposure appearance, as it might give you more harm than profit. A thought provoking bloggers reaction or at least a meaningful quality comment only will get you good traffic. However, your controversial post should be justified and expressed politely, like in every intelligent interpersonal communication.
2. Leaving comments on the blogs with content that is related to your own blog topic of discussion. It is recommended to invest your time in the blog that are related to your own blogs in terms of the placement niche, topics of discussion, or somehow logically connected to your own posts. The reader, impressed be your post in the politics, might want to check your blog for more information about your views and bout yourselves as a person. He follows your link and gets to the blog, related to football. If the visitor is not a football fan, he will leave immediately, and will not be able to enjoy your thoughtful posts, just because he is not interested in football.
3. Your brand name and popularity. The blogging world is big, but there are popular blogs, popular names, you meet again and again in the blogosphere. Active participation brings your name higher on the reader’s perception lists, definitely, if you post quality, informative, and interesting comments. You get more popularity and your blogs get it too. Eventually, you build the constantly increasing group of followers that are waiting for your posts and when seeing your comment on their own or other blogs, they are drawing to read them just because they see your signature. Popularity does not come overnight, it is result of long, time-consuming, brand marketing strategy, so do not expect immediate returns, applying it.
4. Direct traffic to your blog. Blogging experts found a direct relationship between amounts of the valuable posts you make on other blogs with numbers of the received comments on your own blogs. So, the simple recommendation is - do invest your time in the commenting marketing technique and you will see immediate return on investment (ROI) through increased traffic you get.
5. Backlinks. Following straightforward backlinks targeting approach might be considered as artificial by some experts. But, it is fully legitimate and, as you following the appropriate, quality content submission guidelines, it will give you the guarantied automatic traffic. Look through the database of the blogs having the “no follow” link disabled from the comments, which means that if you comment on these sites, you will get an actual link. Excellent D-list with more than 200 applicable blogs can be found through the link: http://courtneytuttle.com/blogs-that-follow/. If you prefer posting your comments strictly on high page rank pages from these blogs, go in Google and type there: site:URL of blog from the list and choose high page rank pages on which you can leave comments.
6. Virtual personal relationship. By commenting on the blogs, you can create informal virtual personal relationship with the author of the blog. Leaving your comments regularly in famous blogs, you can even form good relationship with the top bloggers. It is not easy to get accepted to the top bloggers circle, but who said that your posts are not worth to be on the top?

Blog Comments

Additional Reading:

http://www.bloggingtune.com/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-blog-commenting/

http://www.bloggingtune.com/4-things-which-determine-the-traffic-you-will-get-from-comments/

http://roberteilers.com/2007/10/24/writing-blog-comments-equals-free-targeted-traffic/

http://www.earnexperience.com/archives/black-hat-blogging-techniques/

Equestrian clothing store online.

“Are we going back to the ages of monarchs and horse transportation? Why do you want to learn horse riding?” I questioned my niece rather harshly when she asked for my permission to go on a short holiday to take training on horse riding.

Horse riding? Not a single member in our family ever rode on a horse! I just could not comprehend the fantasies of this generation.

But my husband pacified me and convinced me that as her guardians, we need to show interest in her wishes.

Do you know what, when she finally left for her horse riding training, she showed me her bag of equestrian clothing that she had already purchased online? Her bag was stuffed to the full capacity with horse riding apparels including a small stick hidden at the bottom.

So, she never asked for my permission; she was only informing me. How indignant! For more than a couple of days, I was fuming with unreasonable rage.

Visit the family friendly Las Vegas.

Residents and businessmen of Las Vegas should not think that their Las Vegas is family unfriendly.

I am just sharing my travel experience to Branson that is known as family friendly Las Vegas because of the myriad shows and attractions, as well as the flashy building decorations and neon lights.. My mind is totally corrupted by my husband. He is something special and his tastes and preferences are also always special. You can even call as ‘offbeat’.

He spent some three hours to locate Branson, Missouri. I am sure many would not have heard about it or visited it. It might never be a choice of the populace but it is a place that can remain so and still enchant those that visited it.

To cut the story short, I am going to share the experience of staying in a single bedroom log cabin where even the TV is placed on a piece of log. Again, it is my husband’s choice to stay in a cabin instead of the so called luxury suite. To him, log cabin provides the ultimate luxury.

This cabin is furnished with all the modern amenities also that include Jacuzzi tubs, fireplaces, fully-equipped kitchens and screened in back porches. We could still smell the freshness of wood that emanates immediately after a downpour.

Once you try it, I bet you won’t settle for anything else.

Call Branson hotels at 1 -877-262-0430 to make your reservations.

Monetize your blog on Advertising Blogger.

I am excited and happy to introduce to you a new way to monetize your blog. I know this blog is being read by several hundred persons a day but very few have subscribed to it's feed causing them to miss out on important posts of their interest.

I had subscribed to several watch lists on Technorati based on some keywords. Blog Monetization is of course the main keyword. Based on that, I happen to read several blog posts pulled by Technorati.

Among various headlines in the feed reader, I clicked on the headline, "Monetizing your blog on the new Advertising Blogger Forum'.

The post says, "Advertising Blogger is dedicated to blogging about the coolest Internet advertising deals, and it has seen some pretty good early growth".

I visited the forum and noticed it to be big with a lot of topics of interest to bloggers looking to earn by blogging.

Spread the word if you don't mind by just clicking on the 'Digg' button at the end of this blog post. My advance thanks to you.

Another earning opportunity from Blogitive.

I remember Blogitive has announced about launching another earning opportunity last month. It is now live.

I just received an email from Blogitive that they have launched Link Nerve. This offer is only for Blogitive members at present. This means, when Blogitive members register with Link Nerve for free, they just need not do anything else except to wait for an offer because the blogs that are registered with Blogitive against a member's name, are the ones that will be considered by Link Nerve.

How it works:
Link Nerve has a database of merchants. They will browse through the blogs of Blogitive members. If they find a certain word that might be relevant to their website, then they will ask the blogger an offer to link that word to their (merchant) website and pay the blogger.

This is the most easiest way to earn in the Internet-don't you think so.

What I anticipate is a similar action by other players in the same field except Blogsvertise who are already offering this to its members. Yes, I too was offered a few times by Blogsvertise.

Free Online Multi-Site Blog Pinging Services

In one of my previous articles, related to the methods for traffic rates improvement to your Blog, I have presented the Blog pinging (http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/01/submission-to-search-engines-and.html) as an important approach for the Blog owner to announce the site recent updates to the Search Engines. Instead of pinging each and every Search Engine, that keeps track of weblogs and publishes them, you can use one of the available free online services - automatic multi-engines pinging, giving opportunity to the users updating several Search Engines at once. All you need to do is filling the Blog particulars in the online form for submission. In most cases, the registration is not required, but human presence validation might be needed for submission. The ping signal, usually performed through XML messaging, consisting of the title and URL of your Blog, as well as the date and time of the update, will be instantly sent, notifying on the announced changes. I have revised today the listing on the RateItAll, and currently the Blog Pinging Free Online Services Rating List includes 20 competitive sites.

Access the Rating List through the Link: http://www.rateitall.com/t-24378-blog-pinging--free-online-services.aspx

20 Free Auto-Pinging Services

Note, that if you use the desktop submission software to post entries to your blog, you might find built-in pinging capabilities in your blogging program. Usually this feature is disabled by defaults, but can be activated by the user.

Know your blog's ads by Google on other countries.

May I right in assuming that many of you have not heard about the Google Sandbox? It is a wonderful tool for bloggers and webmasters. In fact, I would say it is a must.

The tool has two boxes.
In the first box you either key in a keyword or an URL.
In the next box, you either choose 'Auto' or choose any country frpm the drop down menu.

Hit the submit button and you will see several ads, a screen full of ads by Google, all varying from each other. It shows different ads that will be displayed in different countries for the key word or the URL you have keyed in.

I saw this wonderful tool in a blog by an Indian. Go to Labnol.org to use this tool.

An unsed mug coverted as a multi holder.

If you are a male, ask your spouse where she has hidden all those mugs you and your spouse have received as gifts. Most probably they can be found in a sack and stashed away in the basement or attic.

If you are a female, you know where are those mugs!

Now look at this picture below. See how an unused mug is converted into a multiple items holder. Isn't it a resourceful idea?



Now go and fetch those unused mugs and select the one that you don't like it all. Buy this Mug Boss and wrap it around the mug. Now it is ready to be used and abused.(borrowed humor;smile)

It has twelve durable pockets which can hold almost anything (pens, screwdrivers, laser pointers, paper clips, Bawls Mints, ad infinitum). Larger items can go directly into the mug itself.

To top it off, a hook and loop closure holds the whole thing secure through the mug handle.

If you like this unique product, there are more of such items that you can found at New Products Finder.

Supern network of Blogs on Products.

This blogging network is unearthed by me a few minutes ago only. I don't know how it escaped my attention so far.

Blogpire Productions is a collection of blogs that concentrate on various products like gadgets, food, coffee etc.

I am a coffee lover. The first product in this network I saw was on coffee. I think that brought me to this network of blogs.

Here is the blog-Single Serve Coffee-a blog dedicated to single serve and one cup coffee machines, coffee, and accessories. This is one of the finest blogs I have ever seen. It is amazing to know that this niche blog on coffee alone has been in existence since 2004. Imagine the content of the blog and the the sheer passion of the blogger!

A sample of categories for you:
Bunn My Cafe
Caffeine and Coffee
Classic Coffee Makers
Coffee Concentrates & Extracts
Coffee Cups & Travel Mugs
Coffee Gadgets & Accessories
Coffee Pod Reviews
Coffee Pods
Coffee Tables
Coffee Visits
Cuisinart
Espresso Pods

Have you ever heard of iPod Coffee Mug? The picture is given below.

The only thing that I noticed was the structure of the permalink which is not search engine friendly.

Wireless Router for just $34.99

Oh those viruses! They are real killers in my opinion. What kind of sadists the developers of viruses are.

My smooth sailing boat was rocked by a virus four days ago. It did not allow me to browse at all. In fact I saw it using abusive language. My antivirus software ditched me defenseless.

Though I have a laptop to use in such situations, I don’t know to how to connect it to the broadband modem because of different IP. I had to call my PC engineer to clean up my desktop. He had to re-install the O/S.

He then advised me to go in for a wireless router. Once installed, I can simultaneously use both my desktop and laptop. I thought it is a costly affair but I was advised to visit Buy.com where a wireless router is available for just $34.99 after a discount of $10 if I use my Google Checkout account.

That is just a throwaway price really-isn’t it?

I have never hesitated admitting that my inspiration for blogging is derived from Pete Cashmore of Mashable and John Chow. I am an ardent reader of their blog posts and I am amazed at their energy and passion.

John Chow's style of writing resembles mine to some extent though I did not copy this from him. But I borrow a lot of ideas from his blog posts and I follow what he advises mostly.

What is the best thing to do when you have nothing to blog about?
John Chow says quite a lot of useful things but at such times, I read his ebook again.

Every time I read his 'Make Money Online' ebook, I pick up something new; I try out a strategy that I overlooked previously.

Man, he is a Super Man!

Exquisite designer jewelry online.

There is a new supermarket in our area. It belongs to the chain of supermarket established by the number one retail merchant in the country. Since it is so nearby, I took a stroll the other day and reached it in 5 minutes.

The store advertised that one can buy farm fresh vegetables and fruits but it also started adding number kitchen utilities too in their shelves. Just I was heading in that direction, I was stopped by a former colleague of mine. After the initial pleasantries, she informed that she is now a full time jewelry designer and but she is not attached to any one designer jewelry manufacturer. She is a freelancer.

I was impressed that pushed away my initial misgivings about her abilities. She was a drawing teacher when we worked in the same school and I thought she is not very good at work. Obviously, she must have enhanced her skill.

She produced a nice photograph that showed sample of her work. Isn’t that lovely?

Utterz-Updating your Blog through Mobile Phone

How can you keep regular posting to your blog, if you out in the mountains for backpacking trip? How to be the first reporting hot news in your blog, while you are not in the vicinity of any computer? Utterz have an answer for you. This service is available for the end of last year, but it just now came to my attention, and I am going to test it next week. For, now, wanted to share with you the information available on this free online service. With Utterz, you can instantly blog your experiences, thoughts and
ideas, anywhere, using the capabilities of your mobile phone. Utterz combines together the voice, video, pictures, and text you call or send in and creates an
complex multimedia message that can be immediately posted on your existing blogs on the most popular platforms, as Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, LiveJournal, MySpace and more. You do not even have to be a registered member to use the company services, but you have some nice additional features, if and when you join the site. If you do not have a cellular phone, you can leave a voice message through any phone, and your post will appear on your blog in 10 minutes. The easiest way to get started is just call a listed on the Web Site phone number 712-432-6666 and record a voice message. Then snap a picture or video from your phone and send with some text to go@utterz.com. You can choose one of the options: or posting message to Utterz and your blog or web page, just Utterz, or just your web page.

Access the site: http://www.utterz.com/
Review the brief video tutorial on the services use outline:

Updating your Blog through Mobile Phone

Additional reading:
http://www.cultcase.com/2007/09/utterz-speak-your-blog-entry.html

http://www.rev2.org/2008/01/02/utterz-mobile-blogging-done-right/

Promote Your Blog to 800K Monthly Visitors.

I didn't realize till now, Rate It All has so much to offer. I just emailed a friend of mine about the usefulness of rate it all but even at that time, I have not fully explored the utility of the site.

They offer widget. For sample, please look at this blog's left side bar just below 'About me'.
This widget helps promote your blog to RateItAll's 800K monthly visitors.

The feedback can be very valuable provided you have tolerance of criticism. Don't you think bad review (negative feedback) also helps in many ways?

How it works:
"Adding the feedback badge automatically adds your blog to the Rate It All blog directory. In addition, ratings posted from your blog simultaneously post on RateItAll.com exposing your blog to more people. "

BTW, I have also created list of paid to blog sites in Rate it All.

http://www.rateitall.com/t-24255-paid-to-blog-websites.aspx

Your top rated personal trainer.

A trainer need not be a human being-right? A top rated machine perfectly fits the role of a human trainer. That is why the treadmills are developed-isn’t it? Of course I agree that the gym atmosphere has its own advantages but then, we are always running short of time and a treadmill at our house gives us the freedom to use as and when we find time.

This (see picture) NordicTrack S3000 treadmill is the best treadmill possible that is available on the market. It will be interesting to note that Runner's World magazine tested NordicTrack S3000 treadmill and said, “this machine is as sturdy as they come, receiving a perfect score from testers for the stability ranking."

This treadmill is intended for those who have to do an intense workout. It is designed in such a way that the impact absorption protects your joints and ligaments.

This requires a 20 Amp plug point folks.

New blog promotion idea!

Never ignore these headlines. You don't know what is in store. If you keep an open mind, you may find something worthwhile. This post itself is a proof of it.

Blog Reporter is a social website meant for all of us to report blog posts that interest us. You can use it like any bookmarking website and post blog teasers. (it is my term )

Just register for free and start using the site. And don't be selfish by posting your own blog post and exit. View others' posts and vote for them. And it need not always be a vote of excellence.

Remember Blog Engage? Well, Blog Reporter is a similar website that we can use for blog promotion. If your blog post receives more number of votes, it is moved to their front page. Once that happens, your blog will get a fresh bunch of visitors.

Need a memory store?

I trust people immediately. I don’t develop doubts at all even when I am shopping. And I mean shopping really costly items like air conditioner and two-wheeler.

I think the trust ensures that I end up buying a product that lasts long, trouble free. It has been three years since I bought a laptop. I am using it only on emergency.

That emergency came three days ago when my desktop was infected and I had to call a technician to reinstall the OS.

Meanwhile, I started using my laptop. The work proceeded slowly because my laptop memory was insufficient to my present line of work. More over, my son has stuffed the laptop with a lot of software.

Ok, how do I find out what is the required up gradation for my laptop? Memorystore.com came to my rescue. All I had to was answer a few questions on their site and I was presented with several choices.

For your requirements please call 877-ADD-RAM9 toll free.

Bloggers on environment wanted.

Say your thanks later but read this post fully if you blog on environment related issues such as green news, alternative energy, alternative fuels and green transportation.

I pay a regular visit to Blogger Jobs and when I visited it today, I saw a post titled,"Bloggers Wanted for 3 Websites.

The advertiser requires bloggers on the above topics and on gadgets too. You may be asked to post 3 to 5 blogs per week and the pay rate is $5CND per post.

The post should contain 300-350 words. I found myself left out of it because of the topics of interest.

Well, you can apply for it and also may spread the word around to help a fellow blogger.

Environmental Website (Established Site)
o Focusing on the environment, alternative energy and other green news
* Green Car News (New Site)
o Focusing on news around green transportation, alternative fuels etc.
* Gadget Website (New Site)
o Discuss new cool gadgets that can be helpful in daily lives, both at home and on the road

The most dependable real estate company.

I have given up the thrill that also co-exists with tension, anxiety and achievement. All these feelings and emotions are associated with building your own house. Am I sensing a nod of approval on your face? Or a smile that is a sign of recognition probably?

It was alright I took up the full responsibility of building my brother’s house when I was young and energetic and I had nothing else to do at that time. It was 1987, when I was fortunate to have had the rare experience of building the house.

As we are contemplating to build a house for us in a calm place, my husband asked me if I would do it again. I said a flat NO. I would rather entrust the complete job of finding a ready built house to GMAC real estate, the most dependable real estate company.

This is a life time dream. It is better to hand over the work to proven specialist. GMAC is for anyone who wants to buy or sell a new home, condo, townhouse, second home, luxury home or any other type of real estate property.

Do you know the 9 rules?

Knowing the 9 rules is easy but you need follow these 9 rules as long as you don't join it.

After reading a few of my blog posts, one veteran internet marketer from U.K. emailed me and complimented on my blogging knowledge. I considered it as a very good compliment coming from an Englishman.

He recommended that I visit 9rules.com and start reading the articles there since he found them as excellent.

Si, I obediently visited and browsed a few articles on writing and women. I can't say that I am very much impressed since the style of writing did not make me linger to fully read one article. It must be that I have other blogging assignments that are on the back of my mind.

Well, 9rules.com is said to contain well written articles on a great array of topics. Visit the site if you have time or inclination to read contributions from others.

Video wall in a restaurant.

“That is why I shop online you see! I hate this crowd and noise”, I told my mother-in-law. She convinced me to go along with her to the nearby mall. The moment we entered the mall I regretted that I had agreed to come.

It was crowded and noisy. Though I had frequented the mall several times in the past and knew my way around, I sensed some changes in there. I could not immediately pinpoint what it was but definitely some change was there.

Am I getting old? “No Mala, you will never get old”, I assured myself. As soon as I did that, I recognized the change. It was the digital signage just around the corner that hid the corridor lined with shops selling furnishings. The digital signage was strategically placed and displayed clearly the way to shops that sold furnishings.

I just glanced around me and saw those ubiquitous digital boards that are meant to navigate the shoppers. Very creative idea it was! I mentally made a note to buy one such digital signage for my academic center.

Cheap hotels in Orlando, Florida.

So, it is time for several Asians to start contemplating about their summer vacation. The summer holidays for schools and colleges are set to begin by mid April. Already, several flights have started offering discounts. New trains are scheduled to clear the summer rush.

I have received a bunch of leaflets that are inserted inside the news papers. I spotted three familiar ads. All the three of them are from hotels and holiday resorts offering exciting packages that one would find it hard to resist.

Cheap Hotels In Orlando Florida was one of the three leaflets that always arrive on time. It is sent by Orlandohotels.com, a pioneer in offering a range of accommodation in Orlando Florida.

I have read several travelogues on Disney Land and one thing they all insisted is we book the hotels in Orlando well in advance to avoid disappointment. Orlando can be really crowded right through the year as it is the second most visited place in the U.S. after Las Vegas.

Ah, Las Vegas, when will you beckon me?

Through OrlandoHotels.com we can easily book hotels and plan your trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. One can search hotels by location, by tariff or by rating by other travelers. And if a user wants to easily compare hotels without booking, with a simple click they can save a property with no login required. After they’ve chosen a set of favorite hotels, all they have to do is click on the My Favorites tab and effortlessly view all the selected hotels and compare price, star rating, distance and availability to find the perfect hotel for your needs.

With Orlandohotels.com, we can have hassle free holidays in Disney World, Orlando.

BlogSpreading: Spread a word about your Blog

Adding links to your Blog in your email signature is a well-known and well-accepted promotion technique. A small free utility helps to enhance this advertising channel. Blogspreading will automatically append a link to the latest post in your blog to your e-mail signature instead of referring to the standard Blog link, not driving much attention of your message recipients. A good title of your latest post will surely evoke more interest than a blind URL. This might encourage your friends and colleagues to actually access your Blog through a Hyperlink and eventually become devoted readers and supporters of your Blog. All e-mail clients allow automatic adding of a signature to outgoing message. The signature is stored in an external text file. Blogspreading processes this file in such a way that it always contains link to the latest post. You signature automatically changes after each new post added to your blog: if the recipient didn’t like yesterday’s title, maybe he will be interested in the new one?

Link for downloading: http://blogspreading.com/download-blogspreading/

I request you to read this blog post on "Yedda-Ask Me" again.

I am excited and happy that it was read by the owner of Yedda, Lior himself. He made a kind comment. He then emailed me appreciating this blog post and told me that he would like to send a gift to me!

Wow! I felt touched and honored. I started blogging in 2005 purely to share my knowledge and experience in the field of spirituality. Then, my interest diversified and this blog is a result of that.

I kept one principle behind my blogging and that is 'Do what you love and love what you do". Blogging is my passion and I don't really expect to be benefited in any way. But if I am rewarded in kind, I gladly accept it with gratitude.

What a place to live!

The photographs were brilliant and looking at my sister’s family, a wave of nostalgia swept over me. God, I miss them all. My sister’s family recently moved in to Topsail Island, Wilmington in North Carolina. Her husband took up a new employment there. He is in the teaching profession.

“Wilmington, where is it, in New Zealand?” inquired my aging mother ignorantly. I told her that Wilmington is a city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States.

My sister made a deal with Wilmington real estate and bought her ocean view apartment at Topsail beach side. From the look of it, it seems to be located in a coveted place; a place, an artist would choose.

Oh, I forgot to ask my sister how far it is from Chantilly.