If you have not heard about it recently on Twitter, SquareSpace is a new trend with blogging technology.

Not too long ago, SquareSpace gained publicity by giving an away an iPhone for 30 days. Past this point, the site has continued to draw in bloggers and website creaters alike to this new technology.

SquareSpace is a fully hosted and managed WYSIWYG design environment for creating and developing a website. All of the arranging of the site’s design can be done just by clicks of your mouse–no coding, and no hiring any over-priced web designers. Some examples of some websites from this service can be found here.

What do you think about SquareSpace? If there is anyone out there currently using this as their blog platform, please feel free to leave your feedback.

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You all seem to like the link lists, so perhaps, I’ll just try to make one post a week one of these. It’s certainly less time consuming for me too

Here are some notable ones for today:

From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days – This is a post from early in the year at ProBlogger, so some of you may have read it before, but speaking of using good titles, it’s hard to beat this one when you’re addressing an audience of people wanting to increase their blog traffic.

Too – Google Co-founder Sergey Brin started a personal blog a couple weeks ago called Too, which I talked about here. He’s only made one significant post so far, but it’s a blog worth watching, based on the fact that he is one of the brains behind one of the most important technology companies in the world.

Anatomy of a Social Networking Friendly Blog (video) – Again, the title pretty much says it all, but it’s an interesting and increasingly important concept.

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Talks with WebProNews – This is an interview from the BlogWorld Expo. While I’m definitely not a fan of Linkin Park’s music, Shinoda’s take on blogging is somewhat interesting, if only to get the perspective of a celebrity.

Top 5 corporate blogging mistakes and how to avoid them – Lists are always interesting, and there is not question that corporate blogs are always making mistakes. This is an interesting look at the issue from David Meerman Scott.

Enjoy!

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The BlogWorld Expo has come to an end, and you can see our coverage of it via these articles:

- Using Social Media To Drive Traffic

- Dave Taylor Explains How We Got Here

- How to Seduce Your Tribe and Create Raving Fans

- How to Build You, Inc.

- Advice From a Wine Expert and Video Blogger

- New Media 101

- Keynote Luncheon with Rubel and Kawasaki

- Both Sides Of The Pro Blogging Coin

- State of the Blogosphere Address

- Microjournalism

- The Best Ways To Approach Bloggers

- Putting Social Media Into the Newsroom

I believe there will be a few more articles posted in the near future, but the juicy stuff should surface on the WebProNews Video Blog before long – the exclusive interviews.  Oh yeah, I did sort of a round-up type article for SmallBusinessNewz as well.

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I’m just going to do the Monday links thing today and highlight a few noteworthy blog-related news items:

- First off, to cap off the week in the National Football League (save for tonight’s game between the Cowboys and the Eagles), Washington Redskins Tight End Chris Cooley exposed himself by posting a picture of his private parts on his popular blog.  I can’t imagine why he would do this. (Don’t worry, the link doesn’t show the pic )

- Keeping in the football spirit, here is a look at how live blogging helps people keep up with games.

- Blogging Tool Zemanta gets backing from Union Square Ventures.  They tout it as “AdWords for content creators”

- JK On the Run has an interesting “Blogging Ike” series.

- And last but not least, THE authority on politics – Lindsay Lohan slams Sarah Palin on her blog.

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Good morning! Anybody else see Hellboy II over the weekend? I was sorely disappointed — I was hoping for something vastly better than the first movie, but got something only marginally better. Oh well — I’m still looking forward to this weekend’s double-whammy of The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia.

And speaking of Batman…

Warren Ellis has called for an end to linkblogs. Maybe the whole Boing Boing vs Violet Blue thing soured him — I know it soured me. Meanwhile, Quark Soup makes some pretty reasonable complaints about blogs in general (h/t Gerry Canavan). Remember: There’s no niche too small. As blogs become more and more localized, will we stop caring about the generalists and focusing more on the experts?

The Writers’ Bag offers a cool tutorial on speed writing. As someone who keeps a moleskine handy at all times, I think I’m going to try this, since my brain often works much faster than my hands.

MetaFilter reminds us that Terry Rossio, half of the screenwriting team that brought you Captain Jack Sparrow, is blogging again. The blog itself seems to indicate that the table of contents was last updated in Fall of ‘07, but hey, a goldmine is a goldmine.

“Trust and credibility are worth more than a fast buck,” say the Men With Pens. It’s a lesson many of us could stand to keep learning. Not me, of course. I am a paragon of virtue.

The adorable manga girls at Dosh Dosh remind us to contextualize the information we share. Also at Dosh Dosh: You’re not just a writer, you’re the editor in chief.

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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.

• Steven Snell lists 45 photo editing tutorials for Photoshop.
• Sharon Hurley Hall reminds us that it’s never good to count your chickens before they hatch.
• Michael Martine has posted some photos and videos from SOBCon 08.
• David at DavidNordmark.com decides to change the direction and focus of his blog.
• David at FullTiltBlogging does a little bragging. Keep up the great work David!
• Eric Brantner has a few tips on selecting a domain name.

Let’s also take a look at few of my favorites posts from the old feed reader this week.

• Men with Pens wants you to discover your MonkeyBoy. One of the best posts I’ve read in a while.
• Blogtrepreneur has a resource you want to check out if your looking to add a job board to your blog.
• CommunitySpark wants you to decide who you are before you start blogging.
• MsDanielle turned 31 this week. Happy birthday!
• eXtra For Every Publisher wonders if Google is getting soft.

Have a great weekend!

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It’s been a while since I’ve done this but I decided to put together a list of Weekend Links today. I can’t guarantee that I’ll do this every week like I used to… but you never know.

Weekend Links are my way of rewarding 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.

• Steven Snell lists 50 essential Photoshop text tutorials.
• jack shares a first time home buyers Clearwater, Florida real estate experience.
• Michael Martine asks, “What picture do your social media activities paint about you?“
• Misti Sandefur helps you tackle the reading, writing and studying dilemma.
• Eric | Directory One SEO reveals the value of the Online Better Business Bureau.
• Chaya Jennifer says you can make money online by freelance programming.
• centrinads shows you how to beef up your Pagerank.
• Andy Murray wants to know if clay court players are getting a raw deal.

Sheesh, it appears that I need to do a better job of moderating comments. And while we are on the subject, I think I need to set a few new guidelines for Weekend Links. To be included in the list of links you must:

1) Have a blog, not a static website.
2) Write in a language that I can actually read. Which would include English and… well… ok, just English.
3) Not annoy me by putting links to spam, splogs, penis pill retailers (or any other pharmaceuticals), and porn in the comment area.

If you need more information on what is acceptable and what is not please refer to our Comment Policy.

Have a great weekend!

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Many Blogspot users haven’t moved from Blogspot to Wordpress because they’re afraid they’ll lose some of their loyal readers, but each time some of them hear about a new Wordpress feature or visit other blogs created with Wordpress, they sigh with envy. As a Blogspot user myself, I can honestly say I wished I had known about Wordpress when I created my Life of a Writer blog, but it wasn’t as popular then as it is today. And like many others, I haven’t moved my blog to Wordpress because I don’t want to risk losing my loyal readers readers either. However, as I was blog hopping last night, I discovered a great post on Download Squad that would allow me to improve my Blogspot blog by giving it a more professional look. Would you like to give your Blogspot blog a professional makeover as well? Then keep reading as I reveal the information I discovered on Download Squad last night.

One of the things I like about Wordpress is their selection of free templates. I like the fact that they offer three column templates, which is something Blogspot does not offer, nor does Blogspot have a large selection of templates to choose from. With that said, the post I discovered on Download Squad, “8 Steps to a More Professional Blogspot Blog,” includes links to six third party websites with several Blogspot templates to choose from. In fact, all of those websites, except for one, has some three column templates that I plan to check out further.

In addition to third party websites with great Blogspot templates to choose from, Download Squad also tells Blogspot users how to eliminate the ugly navigational toolbar at the top of their blog, how to change the label list to a tag cloud, how to add an About Me page and more. Then at the end of their “8 Steps to a More Professional Blogspot Blog” post, they provide links to some other posts they’ve written about Blogspot, and one of those links will take you to a post that discusses adding recent comments to your Blogspot blog.

If you’re looking to give your Blogspot blog a more professional look, I urge you to head to Download Squad and read “8 Steps to a More Professional Blogspot Blog.” It’s most definitely a must read for any Blogspot user!

Do you have any tips on improving a Blogspot blog that you’d like to share with us? If so, please share your tips with us in the comments section. After all, Blogspot users really could use the information to help make their blogs more appealing.

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Last month I asked the readers of Life of a Writer to share suggestions to assist me in my effort to bring something new to the table here at Pure Blogging. I asked them what they’d like to know about blogging, promotion or both that they haven’t read anything about or something they’ve not read a whole lot about. Novice Writer was the first to leave a suggestion, which I will be covering in today’s blog post.

After Novice Writer requested I blog about viral linking, I was not familiar with the topic but decided to research it. During my research, I immediately discovered the disadvantages of viral linking:

1. Links may be irrelevant to your blog. Viral linking includes links to a variety of different blogs, and the viral link list is published on a number of blogs that may not be relevant to your blog. According to Google’s advice for a better SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) and PR (Page Rank), backlinks to your website or blog should be on other websites or blogs relevant to yours.

2. Links may not be good for family-friendly blogs. The links in a viral link list could go anywhere. What if you have a family-friendly blog and one or more of the blogs in the viral link list takes your blog readers to a pornography website? This could reflect badly on you because your blog is, after all, family friendly. Wouldn’t you agree?

3. Could hurt your SERP. Viral linking reminds me of those sites full of just links, and many search engines frown on you for participating in “link farms” such as this. Therefore, if you’re trying to get a better SERP for your blog or you’re working toward getting your blog listed in the popular search engines, then I’d advise against viral linking.

4. Viral linking has a horrible click-thru rate. Brook Durant at A Blog About Nothing researched his blog’s statistics after participating in viral linking and reported a horrible click-thru rate. “I’ve gotten less than 35 clicks coming in to this blog. Outgoing clicks on viral listed sites has been less than 15. As you can see the CTR for viral links is miserable,” Brook Durant explained.

5. Your blog post could go unread. Many of your blog readers may skip your blog post once they realize the post is a viral link post. Why? Because viral link blog posts don’t provide your readers with what they had hoped to discover on your blog: interesting content. Personally, during my research, I looked at a few viral link blog posts and found them uninteresting, so I was one of those readers who didn’t read the post. All viral linking boils down to is a list of blogs. Readers come to your blog for advice, not for a list of links to blogs that may not even be related to yours.

Now you know the disadvantages of viral linking. Whether you participate is up to you. Just keep in mind that participating might hurt your SERP or PR.

Is there something you’ve not read at all or read much about that you’d like to learn related to blogging, promotion or both? If so, leave your suggestion(s) in the comment area, and if I believe I can cover the topic, I will be more than happy to fulfill your request, too.

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Like most writers, I like to spend a lot of time reading about how to write. There’s lots of really useful information out there, and it’s a better way to rationalize procrastination than playing Chain Factor or watching Mythbusters reruns. Here are a few of the best resources I’ve found on my travels around the Web — some of them have actually helped me, and I hope to integrate those that haven’t into my writing as soon as I become a more responsible and productive person. Which should happen any day now.

10 Benefits of Rising Early from Zen Habits. Technically this isn’t specifically about writing, but it has helped me to become an early riser, which has helped my writing and overall productivity dramatically. Whenever I wake up late, I always end up working late into the night — which means getting to bed late, which means the cycle starts all over again.

10 Steps to Creating the Habit of Writing from Write to Done. I particularly like the “No Exceptions” rule — again, I find when I fall out of the writing habit, it’s very hard to get back into it.

The Greatest Sales Letter of All Time from Copyblogger. I could easily place the entirety of Copyblogger’s material on here and be done with it, but that would cross the line from “lazy” to “really pathetically lazy,” and I’m not quite there yet. A great example of writing that achieves its goal with absolutely no fat or prevarication.

Ten Timeless Creative Writing Techniques, again from Copyblogger. At the risk of inching closer to that “really pathetically lazy” label, I offer this as well. The information in this post helped me turn half-decent ad copy into something that I’m really pleased with.

How to Rewrite from Justine Larbalestier. Justine, a real, honest-to-goodness fantasy writer, tells the hard truth about the revision process. Spoiler alert: It ain’t easy.

Title Tags: First Impressions at the Search Engines from Flyte Web Marketing. This post isn’t big on details, but it really helped me to understand the importance of title tags in selling Web copy.

How to Write and Use Description Meta Tags on Your Web Pages from Zero Million. The page is a little ad-heavy, but this is a really great tutorial for writing great, concise meta descriptions. The first piece of advice (”Write Like a Journalist”) was the best for me (but that may be because I used to be a journalist).

Is the Net Good for Writers? from 10 Zen Monkeys. Long article. Good read. Quite a bit of insight from a wide variety of writers, Web entrepreneurs, publishing professionals and overall geeks.

How to Write Faster, Better and Easier from Pick the Brain. When I first read this post, I hated it. “Duh!” I thought. “Who doesn’t know this stuff?” Then I realized that while I knew the information presented here, I rarely practiced it. A good reminder of what a good writing process entails.

Live and Write from Ask MetaFilter. Some great advice in the comments here. Particularly good is the final comment about dream writing vs. lucrative writing.

10+ Unusual Ways to Make Easy Money on the Internet if You Love Writing from NicheGeek. Some of these are a bit on the skeezy side (”Social Bookmark Whoring?”), but it certainly got my creative muscles pumping.

The Complete Nobody’s Guide to Writing Query Letters by Lynn Flewelling. I dread writing query letters. It almost makes me thankful I don’t have a finished novel under my belt. But this tutorial is thorough, and gentle on the first-timer.

An Introduction to Journal Writing from D*I*Y Planner. This post really helped me get over my self-consciousness when it comes to journal writing. I used to get upset if every entry wasn’t Chatwin-quality. Not any more.

Hack Your Way Out of Writer’s Block from 43 Folders. I’ve used each of these suggestions at least once. The Brian Eno reference is also cool.

Lost in Your Own Writing? from JCM Enterprises. Good advice overall here. Also, it references one of the two best dramas currently on network TV. The other one is Battlestar Galactica. No arguments please.

50 Tools That Can Improve Your Writing Skills from Dumb Little Man. All 50 tips are from the Poynter Institute, one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the nation. Many of these are technical rather than conceptual, so I’d wager this is the most useful item on this list. That’s why I finished with it.

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