Most blogger success stories do not happen overnight. For the most part, its perseverance and sustained hard word that rewards online scribes. What that means, is that by the time you start generating serious traffic, some of your strongest content is behind you. (I’m sure you’ll still write amazing posts, but you’ve probably blown a lot of your load).

So let me pose a question:

How do you feel about reposting articles?

I’m not talking about links to past posts or a highlighted section - I mean a straight on repost.

Will duplicate content piss off the search engines? Annoy your readers?

What are your thoughts?

With Labor Day right around the corner here in the States, there’s not much to look forward to in the way of holidays after the summer ends. We might not get the day off, but there’s always Halloween!

With approximately one-third of all adults dressing up, and virtually all kids, it’s time to start scouting out that perfect costume. Characters that appear to be popular for 2008:

The Joker from The Dark Knight
Transformers’ Optimus Prime
High School Musical’s Gabriella
Indiana Jones
Hannah Montana

If you’re searching for yourself, your kids or a friend, be sure to check out the Halloween Costume Shopping Blog. FYI: The blog is run by a company that sells costumes, 0ver 5,000 of them!

From sexy to funny, the blog will profile different costumes all the way to October 31, 2008.

It might be early to think about carving pumpkins and collecting candy, but with the summer about to end, we need something to hold on to! Plus, word on the street is that Joker costumes are already selling out. Y so serious!?

Another neat Halloween costume blog: Costumzee

The majority of bloggers eventually want to turn their content into revenue. While it’s a widespread goal, not too many folks are forthcoming about how much they actually make.

U.S. News and World Report’s Alpha Consumer column spoke with several bloggers who were willing to divulge their blogging income.

Check out the article here.

From bloggers still trying to break even, to the five-digit monthly success of Steve Pavlina, there are many paths to turn a blog into profit. Even two people who take the same path, will likely experience different levels of financial success.

Personally, I have made money from my primary blog. However, the biggest income generator is not directly from my blog. In other words, having a blog has led to opportunities that I would not have been offered or privy to otherwise. I’d say for every $50 I make from the blog, I’ve made about four times that from other projects.

Care to share how much you’ve made with your blog?

Following the Olympics here in the United States on NBC certainly does not guarantee that you will find out who is winning each event. The best place to stay pace with the medal count is the Web. So far, I have enjoyed the coverage available on CCTV.com. Thanks to Adobe Flex, they have created an “Olympic Network TV Station.”

Thousands of hours of video will be available on their site CCTVOlympics.com, with visitors able to view the events they care about. read more

The guys at work are always going nuts about football. Honestly, I have no clue what they are talking about. The same way I have no idea what Fánaticos is talking about. Perhaps that’s because my Spanish-speaking education ended in the eighth grade.

AOL has launched a new blog under their AOL Latino division. The
Spanish-language blog covers football/soccer, baseball and boxing from the United States, Mexico, Latin America and Spain.

Nine sports bloggers comprise the editorial launch team.

Interestingly enough, the ads served are in English, while all of the content is in Spanish. Even more interesting is the fact that AOL is launching a new blog after shutting down some other venues due to ‘budget cuts.’ I wonder if these new bloggers are working for free?

Since early 2007 I’ve hosted my primary blog, Jobacle, with SquareSpace. As a user of WordPress, Blogger and several other platforms, I’ve always been impressed with the ease-of-use of SS.

Recently, the publishing platform launched system wide upgrade (V5) that is worth giving the company a second look if you’re searching for a blog solution.

You’ll find all of the goodies you’ve come to expect: WYSIWYG editor, pretty spiffy templates, metric counter, etc. However, what really sets SS apart from the pack is its back-end CMS, enabling novices to create a fully functional Web site. And the more advanced users can fully customize.

“Squarespace V5 seamlessly welds together easy-to-use content creation and management tools with a structured back-end that has all the building blocks for creating powerful and elaborate websites,” says Anthony Casalena, founder of Squarespace Inc. “Central to this experience is a new way of thinking about website design and management—semi-structured publishing—that seeks to make advanced web publishing widely accessible.”

Among the recent upgrades:

- Drag and drop editing interface, allowing complete real-time website control directly from the browser.

- Powerful pluggable architecture with modules covering every aspect of Web site construction from blogging to galleries, search, form-building and more. Each module is completely configurable and flexible enough to fit into any sized site.

- 60+ Web site styles that are completely modifiable by users with point and click simplicity and speed. The number of controls available virtually ensures that no two Squarespace sites will look the same while their owners can get the exact look and feel they want in the least time possible.

- A robust back-end grid architecture powered by Oracle Coherence and hosted by Peer1 Networks to ensure reliability for each and every Squarespace website, no matter the size. All features are implemented using the same high-performance back-end to eliminate worries about system downtime.

One thing that turned me on to SS was their 14-day trial. They give you full use of the tool to make sure it’s a fit. You can expect to pay around $12 a month.

We all know about the man without a country, but what about the cat without a face?

Poor little kitty Chase. After getting hit by a car as a kitten, she exercised one of her nine lives, and has lived to tell her story.

“I’m a happy kitty and hope to help other humans (especially those disfigured) thru my work as a therapy cat feel just as great about themselves and realize that not everyone looks perfect and that is OK,” Chase writes.

The blog, written from Chase’s perspective by big-hearted vet tech Melissa Smith, has become the cat’s meow on the Web, garnering over 10,000 visitors.

If you enjoy Chase’s blog, you might want to consider supporting the Paws for Friendship charity. The non-profit organization sets up people in need with pets.

Read more about Chase here.

If you take nothing else from the late George Carlin, take that. Regardless of whether or not you found the comic funny, filthy or both, there’s no denying he performed a service for all Americans by pushing censorship issues to the brink. In fact, bloggers arguably owe the man a hat tip.

His “Seven Dirty Words” routine scared the heck out of the governmwnt and has forced dialogue about what can be said on public airwaves up until the present day.

Here are a few one-liners from Carlin. He’ll be missed, but his legacy lives on.

Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward.

If a man smiles all the time he’s probably selling something that doesn’t work.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

If man evolved from monkeys and apes. . . why do we still have monkeys and apes?

Is there another word for synonym?

Would a fly without wings be called a walk?

If it requires a uniform, it’s a worthless endeavor.

Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice”?

Read tons more here and here.

In a daring mood? Apparently bloggers around the world are willing to do the time if they commit a ‘crime.’

According to a University of Washington annual report, since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for things they wrote on a blog. And the numbers are on the rise. 2007 saw three times as many people arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006.

The largest concentration of ‘crimes’ took place in China, Egypt and Iran. However, regardless of where you are a citizen, no blogger is truly above the law.

The university cites the “growing” political importance of blogging as a cause for the uptick.

It also should be noted that the Committee to Protect Bloggers has have identified 344 people arrested - in Burma alone - potentially for blogging.

Whatever the number currently is, If I were a betting man, I’d place a wager that the number will be MUCH higher in 2008.

Read more at BBC.

This morning, Techcrunch wonders aloud if Google Trends can predict the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

We’re not sure if the number of searches for a candidates’ name is indicative of electoral success, but we do know that the Web can help shape today’s political landscape.

In the McCain vs. Obama battle, it is clear that Barack’s camp has been able to utilize the Web in ways other candidates have only been able to dream of up until this point. And with about 100 years separating the two men, Johnny M. is doing his part to see the fact that he is ‘hip.’ To that point, the presidential candidate has launched The McCain Report, a new daily blog that communicates with supporters, reporters and bloggers (maybe critics too).

According to the McCain Website:

The goal of this project is pretty straightforward: to provide journalists and bloggers with a little more insight into what’s going on over here, to provide quotes and information you won’t be able to get anywhere else, and to serve as a point of contact for online media.

You can check out The McCain Report here.