Starting today you can add the private registration upgrade when you buy a domain, or if you have an existing domain registered on WordPress.com you can make it private at any time. If your domain expires in less than six months in the current year you’ll get the rest of the year free but you will have to renew the domain and cover the cost of the privacy upgrade for the remainder of the domain’s lifetime. [...]

The private domain registrations upgrade costs $8 a year and you must purchase the upgrade for the length of time your domain is registered for. (Official WordPress Blog)

Private registration is probably a good idea for any blogger (regardless of platform), as the last thing you want is an angry commenter filling up your voice mail or email with silly statements at 2 AM in the morning.

While private registration will not prevent law enforcement from contacting you, it may help bloggers retain some semblance of privacy, as well as help pen bloggers keep their identity secret.

We have just released iExpression for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. iExpression does not require any add-ons other than those shipped with every copy of ExpressionEngine and supports all 1.X and 2.X versions.

iExpression enables posting and post management for multiple sites, but is also the perfect tool for developers to supply to their customers to enable them to easily post to the sites you build for them.

Supporting image uploads (directly from the camera, or from the image library) iExpression uses a simple user interface to enable you and your customers to get their content up on their sites wherever they are. (ExpressionEngine forums).

Created by Red When Excited (who are based in the UK), iExpression allows EE fans to create and edit content on their blogs, as well as upload images to their respective servers.

The company was also able to roll in Twitter support as well, as well as bake in an analytics tool that allows bloggers to view where their traffic is coming from.

iExpression is a universal app which currently supports the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (for those of you with multiple devices).

There is no word on whether the company will consider an Android app although that may depend upon iExpression’s success in Steve Jobs playground.

Red When Excited is currently selling iExpression for a premium at $10 USD in the app store, and is thus far the only iOS 4 compatible blogging app that supports ExpressionEngine (the other being iBlogger, although it has yet to be iOS 4 tested).

YouTube has announced that the extension is being given since they now have more copyright controls available for content providers, which means it is less likely that users will upload copies of TV series, movies and other copyrighted materials without being censored.

To promote the new 15-minute extension YouTube has launched “15 Minutes Of Fame” a contest in which users can tag their 15 minute videos with the tag “yt15minutes”  at which point winners will be features on the homepage of YouTube. The 15 Minutes of Fame contest includes videos uploaded up until August 4th.

So is 15 minutes going to help create stronger content or just give idiots a reason to rant more about nothing? I’ve guess more ranting is on the way.

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. (The Washington Post)

Although not as bad in some ways as the Disclose Act (which was thankfully defeated after reason entered the room), this requested measure may cause bloggers to become uneasy despite the fact that this proposed measure would only seek contact information (like email addresses you send and receive to) and not the content itself.

While it is understandable that the government’s interest here is security (especially in dealing with “ticking bomb” scenarios), having a judge authorize access helps ensure transparency within the legal system as well as protect privacy rights.

Hopefully Congress and the White House can find an alternative solution to this dilemma (note: perhaps have judges on standby 24/7?) without sacrificing the rights of users online.

(Hat Tip: @JohnMHoyt)

We’re pleased to announce that the new LiveJournal iPhone app is available for free in the Apple store! Be sure to download the application labeled “LiveJournal Inc.” (Official LiveJournal News)

As far as creating content goes, the LiveJournal app is the most advanced mobile blogging app in the app store, one that rivals (if not exceeds) WordPress and Squarespace, as well as a host of third party apps.

The new (and now official) iPhone app is very similar to CosySoftware’s version, both with allow you to easily upload multiple images, insert hyper-links, format text (bold, italics and strike through are currently supported) as well as create expandable post summaries (aka the “Read more” feature).

However the official LiveJournal app goes one step further than its predecessor by allowing you to insert polls from within the post, as well as comment on journal entries that you follow (advance formatting included!).

Similar to their rival apps, you can also post your location (a feature I have yet to embrace on any blog platform). Unfortunately fast app switching was not supported, although I expect that they will add this in a future update.

LiveJournal is currently giving away the app for free, although the company may want to have Apple remove CosySoftware’s elder version (lest users become confused between the two as they are sporting the same image).

We are happy to annonce that b2evolution version 4.0.0-alpha has been released.

Finally! you may say… but we’re pretty confident the new features were worth the wait ;-) There is really a lot under the hood! [...]

However, please do keep in mind this is alpha software and that it’s a major new release. Despite extensive testing, there will be issues and you may need to dig into the PHP code to fix them quickly. At this point we only recommend that you upgrade if you don’t mind a little bit of experimentation (Official b2evolution Blog)

Note: Emphasis theirs.

The b2evolution crew have already mentioned the various features they have baked into the CMS/blog software which range from widgets enhancements, multiblog cross posting and support for Gravatars (to the delight of bloggers everywhere).

While non-techies sporting b2evolution should stick to using version 3.3.3 (at least upon their main sites), geeks who do not mind living on the edge may want to dabble with 4.0 in order to help benefit a sibling of WP.

While the iPad’s large screen may make an iPad friendly layout unnecessary for most users, blogging pros may want to exercise more control over the appearance of their site without going bankrupt hiring a theme developer.

Fortunately for WordPress fans, there is now a plugin by Jason Baptiste that makes your blog iPad friendly without having you touch a single line of code.

PadPressed is a Wordpress plug-in built to deliver the best browsing experience for your readers on an iPad. When a reader visits your blog from their iPad it is automatically formatted to be tablet ready with swipe to advance gestures, accelerometer aware column formatting, touch navigation, and more. PadPressed makes your blog function like a native iPad app. (PadPressed)

Unlike many of the free mobile plugins bloggers use to make their sites viewable upon various smartphones, PadPressed is a premium app that will set back publishers $50 (a price some bloggers may balk at).

Despite the cost, PadPressed looks impressive overall, although it will be interesting to see if other mobile plugin developers follow the lead of PadPressed by releasing similar plugins.

(via TechCrunch)

View the complete graphic over at BloggingPro

According to The Next Web the company is going to implement a “daily deal” featured and the functionality is being testing in certain markets with select users. According to Yelp’s Community Manager:

“We are testing it out for fun to see what kind of response it generates… Also, there will be another Deal coming out on Wednesday so look for it!”

Goods and services will both be offered with significant discounts, just like Groupon. The one advantage? Yelp has a much bigger user base than Groupon (recently valued at $1 billion).

Yelp does have a few advantages over Groupon, including an OpenTable integration which could allow them to find a deal at a local restaurant and then give users the option to make an immediate reservation, they can also draw in users as part of their social checkin’ option may be sweetened by a daily deal.

What do you think Yelp users? Is this something you are willing to try out? I think it will all depend on the type of deals Yelp offers to their customers.

This is a guest post by Mark, the creator of StayOnSearch a Search & Social Media Blog and president of Search Creatively.

Having a blog editor can be a great asset in maintaining the quality and standards for your blog. For any blog that is looking to grow and add new bloggers to contribute content, there is going to come a time when you will need to hire a blog editor. However during the growing pains of a blog, the blog editor may also have various other responsibilities, until you are creating enough content to keep an editor busy full-time. Without having a system in place for quality assurance your content will suffer and you can start to lose loyal readers and traffic.

Let’s take a look at the different characteristics that make up a great blog editor.

Extremely Organized

The first and foremost characteristic is being organized. If your blog editor is unorganized it will show in the consistency of when new posts are launched, completed deadlines, and making sure there is a good variety of content being created. A blog editor who is organized will have content prepared well in advance of the actual launch date. They will also have a system in place to make sure there is no overlap in terms of the types of content each author is covering.

Pays Attention to Detail

Someone who pays close attention to detail is really what keeps high quality standards in place. As your blog starts to grow and you add new authors, they will not be familiar with things like post formatting, content approval process, and all of the other standards that each blog has. It will be important that the editor pays close attention to these new bloggers to make sure they are following the rules and guidelines that the blog has set.

Good Communication Skills

Creating a good communication system is very important. Many blogs will use internal communication tools like TeamBox and Campfire to allow all authors to talk to each other, share ideas, and collaborate. A blog editor must make sure each author knows their responsibilities, deadlines, and overall goals of the blog. In order for those objectives to be accomplished, they must be readily available, like to join in the internal discusses, and keeps everybody motivated.

Not Afraid to Get Dirty

There are going to be times when your blog is going to lack content. Maybe a blogger is out sick or something comes up and they are not able to write their regular column. It is the blog editors responsibility to get in there and fill in that spot so that your regular content keeps flowing. They should also not be afraid to tell a blogger if the quality of their content is not up to par or if things need to be edited.

Basic SEO Skills

A blog editor does not necessarily need to be a SEO guru, however they should know the basics. Being able to do some basic keyword research to tweak the post copy to appeal to a certain search phrase can help organic rankings. Also making sure the post has a good internal linking structure and uses keyword-rich anchor text is extremely important for larger blogs.

Is Socially Connected

A bonus which makes a great blog editor the ULTIMATE blog editor is someone who is socially connected in the industry. If you hire a blog editor who is well recognized in the industry, you not only gain their talent, you get access to their network.

Someone who has built credibility on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, etc…and has the power to traffic additional traffic to the blog through their social profiles, is a huge plus!

This is a guest post by Mark, the creator of StayOnSearch a Search & Social Media Blog and president of Search Creatively, a full-service Internet Marketing Company located in Raleigh, North Carolina. He also contributes to many industry related blogs including Search Engine Journal and is active on Facebook and Twitter.  Follow Mark @m_thompson.