PureBlogging

If you have a blog and want to raise its profile, there’s no better way to get lots of traffic quickly than to use the social sites. However, the trouble is that multiple submission of your own posts to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and others is frowned upon. At best, you will stop attracting traffic; at worst, you’ll be labeled a spammer. It’s a Catch-22 for blog owners who have great content that they want to showcase. What bloggers need is a way to legitimately promote their own blog content - and there’s a new site that does just that.

Blow Your Own Trumpet

It’s called BloggingZoom and I’ve been testing it out for the past couple of weeks. What attracted me to the site was that it is okay – in fact positively encouraged – to submit your own content. It’s a site where no one minds if you blow your own trumpet.

Post Submission

Like many other social sites, you have a profile page where you can describe your blog. BloggingZooom also has a limited friends’ network. Submitting a post is a three-step process which is made easier by using a handy bookmarklet. Just click on this when you’re on the post that you want to zoom. This takes you to a page where you can edit the post title, write a description (at least 4 sentences and 350 characters) and add tags. You preview, then you click ‘submit’ and you’re done. Your post has just had its first zoom. There’s also a Wordpress plugin which makes it easy for readers to zoom your posts while on your blog.

Getting Promoted

The post you submit goes into BloggingZoom’s upcoming queue which all members can view before being promoted to the front page. With any luck other people will zoom it giving it a chance to appear on the list of popular content. The front page features published posts, upcoming posts, hot posts, tags and a very nifty random post link. Members are also able to comment on your posts on the BloggingZoom site, which helps with creating a network.

BloggingZoom Secrets

The secret to attracting attention on BloggingZoom, as on many other sites, is to have a great title (short and catchy) and a useful description. I usually pick a few interesting sentences from the middle of my post. Be warned. If your description is too short, you won’t be able to submit the post. While I found this quite annoying the first couple of times it forced me to think more about how the description helped others to perceive my post.

Building Traffic

So far, I have submitted nine of my own posts. All but one of them have gone hot which I think means that at least four or five other people have also zoomed the post. The interesting thing is that unlike StumbleUpon where you often get a flurry of interest at the start which dies away as suddenly as it started, with BloggingZoom interest in the posts has developed more slowly.

What is also interesting is that BloggingZoom has brought a steady trickle of traffic to the posts that I’ve submitted. I’ve also seen interest in my profile from a number of BloggingZoom members. I expect that if I took the time to find out which of my online friends are members of the site, I would get even more traffic from it. Until then I’m more than happy with the new readers I’ve already gained. BloggingZoom is still at an early stage, but I like what I see so far.

I like to think of links as a kind of web currency. We all need to accumulate as many high quality, relevant links as we can and one of the best ways to do that is by submitting your blog or website to as many web directories as you can find. Well, today we are going to take a look at a new blog directory from the folks over at Alive Web Directory.

URL

http://www.alivedirectory.com/Blog-Directory/

About

Alive Web Directory is an established, well respected web directory that has been around since 2005. The directory is human edited and claims to list only quality, spam free, family friendly sites which are organized into easily recognized categories. While it is a well established resource and covers a very wide range of topics, the blogging section is a new addition and appears to have very few listings.

Pros

With the number of blogs growing by the minute it was inevitable that blog directories would follow but the Alive Blog Directory seems to have a few advantages:

1. Design: The design is simple, clean and very attractive.
2. Well Established: The main directory has been in existence since 2005 and that’s like an eternity in Internet years.
3. High PageRank: The main index page is PR6 and the internal pages for the main directory are high as well so you would expect the blog directory to eventually have a decent PR.
4. Usability: The interface is simple and very straight-forward so submitting your blog or website is quick and easy.
5. Listing Options: There are a number of options you can select from when submitting your blog. Prices range from $29.95 per year for a Regular Listing all the way up to $224.95 for a Permanent Listing.

Cons

There’s a lot to like but I felt I should mention a couple of things here:

1. Pricing: There is no free listing option and while the $29.95 minimum price may not seem like a lot of money I think it is more than the average blogger will be able to afford.
2. Payment Options: PayPal seems to be the only accepted form of payment. While that’s not terrible, some people cannot or will not use PayPal.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Alive Web Directory is well established and seems to have decent traffic while the blog directory is new but has excellent potential. It will be interesting to see if the average blogger feels that the $29.95 price tag is a worthy investment or if that money would be better spent elsewhere.

Note: The preceding post was sponsored by Alive Blog Directory.

Have you ever discovered a new site and said, “Man, why didn’t I think of that?” That’s how I felt when I heard about Phil Van Treuren’s new project at Contest Blogger.

URL
http://www.contestblogger.com/

About
According to the About Page, Phil has limited the focus of Contest Blogger in an effort to provide you with contests and promotions that will help you grow your blog’s audience, build backlinks to your site, rank higher for keywords in search engines, and increase your blog’s RSS readership.

There are other blogs out there that specialize in prizes and contests, but Contest Blogger deals exclusively with blogs and bloggers. Our webmaster, Phil Van Treuren, is a professional blogger who knows how much time and dedication it takes to build a successful blog . . . and he won’t waste your time with anything other than projects and contests that will help you build your traffic and make your blog more lucrative.

You won’t find posts about any contests, sweepstakes or prizes on Contest Blogger if they don’t have to do with professional blogging and link building. It just won’t happen.

Pros
You know you have a great idea when your site is less than a month old and has already received link love from the likes of ProBlogger and eMoms at Home.

1. Content: These days it seems like there is a new blog contest or writing project announced everyday and now there is a place where you can find all the latest blog promotions. This idea is pure genius and there has never been a better time for this service.
2. Win-Win Situation: If your looking for contests to enter, you can now find all the current contests and promotions listed in one place. And if you are running a contest, you get free exposure. What could be better?
3. Ingenuity: If you look closely, you’ll notice that a lot of the contest listings at Contest Blogger actually qualify as entries! How cool is that? Not only is he providing a service, he is giving himself a chance to win.
4. Generosity: If he does happen to win, which he already has, Phil vows to give any physical prizes won back to the Contest Blogger readers by running his own contest.

Cons
I had to try hard to find something that I don’t like here. Contest Blogger uses one of my favorite themes. I like the layout, the colors, the content, and the concept but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t pick on something.

1. Search Box: I would try to make the search box a little more obvious. It could be easily overlooked in it’s present position.
2. Donations: I know this is a little picky but… I’m not a big fan of asking for donations on a site that is already monetized. In this case it’s a little different because bloggers who get free exposure may want to contribute to Contest Blogger so it’s probably a good idea to give them every opportunity to do so.

Final Thoughts
Contest Blogger is a great concept and is being introduced at what seems like the height of the blog contest craze. Congratulations Phil, I think you have a winner!

Blogging Tips is one of the feeds that I read every day so when Kevin requested a review, I was more than happy to oblige. The following are my thoughts and opinions on his site.

URL
http://www.bloggingtips.com

About
The tagline says, “Take your blog to the next level!”, and I think that is a pretty accurate description of what this site can help you do. Kevin has been involved in web development since 2000 and has managed several webmaster related resource sites and forums in that time. Blogging Tips was created to share the things he has learned over the years and help you improve your blog.

Pros
There is a lot to like and here are a couple of things that stand out to me.

1. Content: Content is king and Blogging Tips does not disappoint in that area. The site may be relatively new but the archives are already packed with many, many excellent tips and ideas. Some samples include:
   • A Beginners guide to installing Wordpress
   • Creating an Archives page in Wordpress
   • Flip Your Blog To Stand Out From The Crowd
   • Look mum, I’m an Internet Entrepreneur!
   • Is it wrong to blog for money?
   • 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
2. Design: In general, I like the 3-column design with the large content area in the center. I think it provides a lot of flexibility and does a good job of framing the main content. The ads also blend well with the overall design and are not intrusive at all.
3. Extras: Kevin has included an excellent blogging FAQ page and has a couple of nice free Wordpress themes available for download.

Cons
I know how hard people work on their site and it’s tough to criticize something that they have worked so hard on but there are a couple of things that I feel I should point out here.

1. Sidebars: I like the layout of the site but the sidebars seem to be a little too busy and distracting. It’s hard to focus on the main content area because my attention is drawn to the sidebars.
2. Search Bar: Maybe a little too creative… it took me a while to realize what it was. I didn’t think the site a search function at first.
3. Feed: Some of Kevin’s posts are very long so I certainly understand the use of the more tag to split his posts up. Unfortunately for feed readers like myself, the more tag is not feed friendly and may cost him a few subscribers in the long run. I would suggest either not using the more tag or installing Full Text Feed, a plugin that prevents Wordpress from adding the more link to your feed.

Final Thoughts
Blogging Tips has a ton of high quality content and is regularly updated with great advice for both new and advanced bloggers. If you get a chance head on over and take a look around. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Note: The preceding post was sponsored by BloggingTips.com.

Darin.cc is a relatively new blog whose main focus is search engine marketing. Despite being new, there are already a lot of very informative posts and it looks like Darin is well on his way to carving out a nice little spot in the blogosphere.

I find the site to be very informative but I am particularly enjoying the series on how to successfully manage a ppc campaign. I have never been able to run a profitable ppc campaign an I’m looking for all the help I can get in that area. Part 1 and Part 2 have already been posted and I anxiously await Part 3. There are lots of other great posts too like: The State of Search Engine Marketing, Deep Linking Is Your Key To SEO Success, and How to Escape Google’s Supplemental Index.

The layout is nice, clean and easy to navigate. The only thing that I see that might need a little tweaking is the Top Commentators list in the right sidebar. The spacing seems to be a little off and it doesn’t match the other menu items.

Overall, Darin.cc is a site that is definitely worth a read and has earned a spot in my feed reader.

By the way, Darin is offering 2 links to your blog and a FREE Platinum IAWMD Membership and all you have to do is review his blog!

I’ve been a regular reader of John Chow dot Com for about a month now. His blog’s main focus is technology and the Internet but what I find especially useful is the information on setting up and monetizing your blog. You can find tips for getting more out of Google adSense, Text Link Ads, Kontera, affiliate links, and many other monetization opportunities.

John’s has also come up with some pretty interesting ways to generate traffic and links to his blog. Such as, if you post a review of his blog, he’ll link back to you. Not only will you get a ton of traffic from the link, you will be getting a link from one of the most popular blogs on the Internet and that can only help your PageRank and Technorati ranking.

I consider John’s blog a must read and if you are trying to make money online, you can certainly learn a few things from him.