PureBlogging

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Links! Every Friday, I reward the active members of this community by featuring an interesting post from the top commentators.

If you would like to see your post featured here, just join the conversation by commenting regularly and next week you just may make the list.

Here’s this week’s list:

• Search Engine Marketing reveals all that Google can do for you.
• Michael Wales introduces Pownce, Kevin Rose’s new startup.
• JoLynn Braley asks, “What is Phenylalanine?“
• Rhys gets to practice his Welsh.
• Roberta makes fun of celebrities in Tidbits for Today.
• Blogging with Desi Baba gives a few tips on how to make your blog more enjoyable.
• Angie reviews AdesClrPicker and reveals her favorite guy bloggers. Thanks Angie! (Yes, she gets two links this week. )
• webd360 shows you how to get indexed by Google faster.
• A Tentative Personal Finance Blog explains how to land a job as an intern.
• Andrea Micheloni creates a new blog to track all the blog contests called Contest Tracker.

We even had a few new faces make the list this week. Congratulations everyone, you’ve been stumbled… Have a great weekend!

Popularity: 17% [?]

AOL recently launched a redesigned version of AOL News that combines news, AOL Programming, and social news features in an innovative new blog format. The new homepage features top news stories delivered in a blog-like format that lets users vote and comment on each story.

They also provide a list of stories that are generating the most user interest, including most popular and most commented-on stories, along with user-submitted news.

“News habits have changed, and AOL News is the first site designed from the ground up to appeal to today’s online news consumer,” said Lewis D’Vorkin, SVP of AOL News & Sports. “Unlike other news portal sites, AOL News leverages the increasingly popular blog format, drawing on a wide range of news sources to provide consumers quick access to the top stories and related pictures, videos and polls. We believe that AOL News will set the standard for other major online news sites.”

So, we now have a major news outlet trying to replicate the look and feel of a blog to deliver your daily news. I think this demonstrates just how influential blogging has become and it will be interesting to see if other news outlets follow suit.

Source: Media Week

Popularity: 14% [?]

I decided that I was not going to participate in anymore link trains for a variety of reasons. The most important to me is the fact that eventually Google, Technorati, etc. will probably decide to devalue any benefit you get from participating in link trains. And they may even penalize the practice… so why should I push my luck?

Another reason is that I get so many requests now that I could do a meme or link train just about everyday and I’m sure many of you are in the same situation.

However, after thinking about it for a while I decided to participate in this one for a couple of reasons.

1. It was started by my friend Darin.
2. Being the greedy bastard that I am, I really want to increase my Bloglines subscriber numbers.

So, here goes…

***Start Copying Here:***

Here are the rules:

1) If you don’t have a bloglines account signup for one, if you do have a bloglines account sign in to your account!

2) Write a short introduction paragraph about what how you found the Bloglines list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.

3) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can be accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

4) Take “My New List” and move them into the “The Original List”.

5) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Bloglines List to the “My New List” section. Remember to also add the “List the Site link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.theblogurl.com/feed)

6) Add Everyone on this list to your Bloglines List by clicking on “List the Site.” Those who want good kharma will list you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of readers from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

My New List

Bobs – List the Site
Donovan – List the Site
Ryan Shamus – List the Site

The Original List

Idiot Brain – List the Site
pyxlb0mb – List the Site
Derrich – List the Site
Search Engine Marketing – List the Site
Gary Lee – List the Site
Dosh Dosh – List the Site
David Culpepper – List the Site
Ms Danielle – List the Site
Darin Carter – List the Site
Big Rayvin – List the Site
Jon Lee – List the Site
Samanathon – List the Site
Jason Neuman – List the Site
John Chow – List the Site
Kid Blogger – List the Site
Spud Oregon – List the Site

***End Copying Here***

Popularity: 13% [?]

Well, it’s been a week since we started the 1000th Comment Contest so I thought I would give you a little update. I’m surprised that the number of comments hasn’t increased over previous weeks but Part 2 of the contest has been very popular and I am extremely happy with the response.

We had 95 comments in the last week and our total is now 878. It would be nice if we could reach our goal before the 4th of July. I think that’s within reach… what do you think?

There is one thing that I do need to mention. If you are participating in Part 2 of the contest make sure you send me an email with the link to your post. After I get your email, I will send you a note letting you know that I have received your entry… that’s the only way that you can be sure I have you on the list. Please send me those emails.

If you haven’t entered already and would like a chance to win your share of our $200 Cash Giveaway be sure to enter the 1000th Comment Contest!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Being a new father as well as an Airman who works 10+ hour days I am often asked, “How do you maintain a consistent posting pattern?” I post consistently on my two professional blogs (Betaflow and GibThis) and at a decent rate on my personal blog. What’s my secret? Scheduling.

Each morning I wake up 3 hours before I have to be at work. This not only gives me plenty of time for my daily rituals (shower, shave, polish boots, etc.) but also provides time to take care of what I refer to as the blogging basics. My morning activities consist of replying to emails, basic site maintenance, a review of the logs from yesterday, and a quick glance through Google Reader – starring any items I want to return to. If time permits, I’ll write up a few posts, or put the final touches on drafts, and either publish or schedule those posts for a later time to auto-publish.

Luckily enough for me, my work schedule permits a few minutes during the workday to work on more blog posts – which are usually nothing more than the short news blurbs and commenting on articles I have found elsewhere. Weekends are when the real work is done – where I dedicate at least 3-5 hours to finalize what is most commonly referred to as cornerstone content. The weekends are when I conduct all of my interviews, gather up my notes, and get those more difficult articles finalized and scheduled to auto-post later within the week.

Take advantage of WordPress‘ auto-post feature, where you can schedule an article to automatically post in the future by manually changing that posts timestamp. Combining this, with your own consistent schedule, should undoubtedly give you the results you are looking for. You will find you have more free time by focusing on your blogs in a consistent timespan throughout the week rather than rushing to shotgun out a few posts each day.

Michael Wales is currently a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force awaiting a July promotion to Staff Sergeant. Michael also writes a blog at http://www.betaflow.com/ about Web 2.0 companies and new media.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Aaron Wall, the owner of Threadwatch, has announced that the blog/forum will be closing down on Friday. He cites a number of reasons for the decision: edgy news, gossip, decentralization, spam, and having other priorities in life.

Threadwatch has been a mainstay of the SEO/SEM industry for nearly three years and today’s news was quite a surprise to the community, many of whom are asking Aaron to reconsider. I too am sad to see it go because it was a good place to get the latest news and keep up with some of the more controversial topics of the industry.

Best of luck to Aaron and the other Threadwatch moderators.

Popularity: 13% [?]