Top Apps to Help You Market Your Blog Like a Pro

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With the huge number of blogs all around the world these days, and more and more being created all the time, it’s important not just to run your blog like a business, but also to invest in marketing it in the same way too. After all, there’s no point learning all the ins and outs of your industry or creating a fantastic new product or service, only to have no one much know about it.

However, for many bloggers, the prospect of marketing can be daunting, and feel like something outside your comfort (and knowledge) zone. That’s where some of the best apps on the market can help you really make your blog soar this year.

Whether you want to hit a big target when it comes to the number of social media followers you have, or plan to win big with webinars over the coming months, there are many ways to market your blog so that as many people as possible can fall in love with it. Read on for some top apps that you should consider downloading today that can help you achieve your goals more quickly and easily. [Read more…]

5 Places to Get Content Creation Ideas From

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You always hear marketers talking about the need for original content. The problem is pretty much everything has been done before. That leaves you in a difficult position unless you hire one of the professional content creation services that will do it for you. There are still ways to put a new spin on content. Finding the inspiration can prove tricky. [Read more…]

WordPress News: WordPress Wins at Irish Blogger Awards, WordPress Events Everywhere, WordPress for PowerPoint, Flash Security Issue, Feedburner Deadline

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March is WordPress month with more WordCamps and WordPress Meetups than ever. Will April beat it? Lester Chan makes a WordPress PowerPoint Template for presentations. WordPress wins the Best Irish Blogs Awards. FeedBurner transfer deadline is this weekend. Adobe Flash security vulnerability found, impacting many Plugins and WordPress blogs. And a lot more WordPress news coming your way.

WordPress News

The Best Bloggers in Ireland Use WordPress: Donncha O’Caoimh attended the Best Irish Blogs awards and reports that WordPress powers the best Irish blogs. Cathal Garvey created a comparison chart that found and represented 66% of the nominees, followed by Blogspot, then Movable Type. Has another country done similar comparisons?

WordPress PowerPoint Presentation Template: In anticipation of presenting a WordPress program at Blogout’09 in Singapore, Lester Chan went looking for a WordPress style template for Powerpoint. He couldn’t find one. So he created the WordPress PowerPoint Template that uses the official WordPress Logos and Graphics and looks very WordPress 2.7. He offers it free for anyone else searching as he did. Thanks, Lester! [Read more…]

WordPress News: Can You Spot a WordPress Blog? WordPress 2.8 News, Plugin Directory Searchable, iPhone App Tested, and More

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Can you spot a WordPress blog? Are you sure? WordPress 2.7.1 released. Improvements on the WordPress Plugin Directory search functions. Help for those transferring from LiveJournal to WordPress.com, and WordPress in the future. WordPress 2.8 development on track. WordPress iPhone app in testing for next release. WordPress.com gets a new data center. More WordPress Tattoo news. WordCamps in Miami and India this weekend, Denver next. Singapore starts its first blogger meetup, including WordPress fans. WordPress jobs, and tips for WordPress Plugin and Theme authors.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7.1 Released: WordPress 2.7.1, a maintenance release, is out. If you are using WordPress 2.7, take advantage of the automatic built-in upgrade. If you are not, then consider upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Sixty-five files were modified with 68 bug and feature fixes and improvements, and I covered more details about the release on my blog.

Improvements in the WordPress Plugin Directory: At long last, the WordPress Plugin Directory now has a new and improved search function using Sphinx open source SQL full-text search engine to help you find the Plugins you need in the directory from the site as well as the WordPress Plugins panel.

Improved LiveJournal Migration: For those looking to migrate from LiveJournal to , there is now an even easier LiveJournal migration process that the WordPress.com team has come up with to help the ever increasing number of people moving to WordPress.com from one of the oldest blogging platforms in the world. The new technique is a step by step approach that improves the importing from importing by the month without comments to now include comments, handle “friends only” posts, private posts, improvements in tagging, link back to LiveJournal blogs, and connection to the LiveJournal API to download all posts and comments in one pass. One LiveJournal users helped test the importer which handled over 3,700 posts and nearly 200,000 comments. The new importer will be included in the next major release of the full version of WordPress. [Read more…]

WordPress News: WordPress 2.7.1, WordPress Tattoo, BuddyPress, WordPressMU Gets Plugins, Plugin Book, and More

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WordPress 2.7.1 is out. The first ever permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo is embedded. BuddyPress helps change how WordPressMU handles Plugins. New WordPress Plugin development book due soon. WordCamp Germany this weekend, with Miami and Denver coming up. New insights into WordPress 2.8 under the hood. And more from WordPress.tv and WordPress fan blogs.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7.1 Released: WordPress 2.7.1, a maintenance release, is out. If you are using WordPress 2.7, take advantage of the automatic built-in upgrade. If you are not, then consider upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Sixty-five files were modified with 68 bug and feature fixes and improvements, and I covered more details about the release on my blog.

Ed Morita Final WordPress tattooPermanent WordPress Tattoo: in Hawaii is the first to put a permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo on his body. In January, he invited readers and WordPress fans to tell him where to place the tattoo and the wrist was the most popular response. I covered the event live on my blog, on the WordCast podcast, on Twitter (@lorelleonwp and @NctrnlBst), and it was picked up by many, including Mashable. In Ed’s story about the tattoo, he explains that it is meant to represent what it would look like if his skin was torn off to reveal a circuit board underneath with the WordPress logo. There has been much debate over whether or not the logo is the “right” one, and Matt Mullenweg confirms that it is the correct logo. The news has prompted another person on Twitter to hold an auction to get a tattoo, and several news agencies have contacted Ed Morita to cover the story. [Read more…]

WordPress News: WordPress.tv, WordCamp Whistler, WordPress Logo, City Saves Money, and More

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WordPress.tv announced. Know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? A Tweet sums it up. WordCamp Whistler this weekend. If you use the WordPress logo, Matt Mullenweg wants you to use the right one. Last chance to have your say on the first permanent WordPress tattoo. City saves money choosing WordPress. And more WordPress news and information.

WordPress News

Watching WordPress.tv: WordPress.tv is your WordPress channel for watching all things WordPress. It features videos put together by WordPress staff and others on how to use WordPress and WordPress tips and techniques. The tutorials cover the full version of WordPress and WordPress.com. There is also a WordCampTV channel to watch the videos from WordCamp events around the world.

WordPress versus WordPress.com Overheard: The difference between and was recently explained on Twitter as:

@TheGeneTeam Diff between wp.com & wp.org is freedom. Org is freedom to tweak. Com is freedom to just blog. :D One free, other free with expenses.

Matt Mullenweg’s New Year’s Resolutions and Birthday Celebration: Among Matt’s new year’s resolutions is to get the WordPress Community using the correct WordPress logo. He’s created a comparison image to convince everyone to use the right logo. He worked hard to come up with the current logo created a few years ago.

Update on WordPress Logogate: Many thought the issue Matt had with the community generated WordPress logo was the colors. Matt has corrected this with a clear graphic explanation of what his issue is with the community-generated logos and the trademarked, real WordPress logo. It’s not the color, it’s the font. He worked hard to get the right font for the “W” in the logo. You can color it whatever color you want, just keep that pretty “W” font in its place. Thanks for clearing that fine detail up for us, Matt.

Let’s help Matt make his new year’s resolution and goals come true and use the right logo. I’ll be updating them here in the next issue. [Read more…]

BlogTalkRadio Gets New Look, Networking Features

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BlogTalkRadio LogoOn Monday, popular online radio network BlogTalkRadio announced a set of several new user interface features that encourage social networking and show participation.

The network has a What’s New page explaining the recent changes in detail.

Mashable says that “the focus is clearly to get visitors listening to more shows.” I agree. Without listeners, BTR dies on the vine.

A secondary pair of focal points to the changes at BlogTalkRadio appears to be to get BTR show hosts to talk to each more and to get more people to discover BTR via social networking websites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. [Read more…]

Top 3 Reasons Why Video Blogging Won’t Make It Big

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Video blogging is never going to make it big for me, and neither are podcasts. Text content is king.

Now, why would I say that? Really, what’s wrong with heralding the video blog as blog 2.0 (or whatever version we’re at), and push the podcast as the 1.5 or something. I can give you 3 reasons why video won’t beat text, why the spoken word online can’t do a real battle with the written word. [Read more…]

WordPress Wednesday News: iPhone, 10 Downing Street, WordCamp UK, WordPress 2.6 Rocks, WordPress International, and WordPress Themes Directory

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WordPress iPhone mania sweeps the WordPress Community. WordPress will now rule an entire nation. WordCamp UK a resounding hit. WordPress 2.6 appears to be a stable release. The new WordPress Themes Directory is now an extend. WordPress working hard on improving localization and international translations. Go VOTE for your favorite new WordPress Plugin.

WordPress News

iPhone for WordPress: It’s the talk of the web. The WordPress for iPhone brings your WordPress blog to your iPhone. It is Open Source and compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone, and iPod Touch and works with full-versions of (2.5.1 or higher) and . You can download it for free from the iTunes App Store. There is a WordPress iPhone frequently asked questions page to help, and a place to report iPhone WordPress problems. A walk-through video on WordPress for iPhone is on the Automattic Publisher blog. CNet Webware gives a positive review of the iPhone WordPress app, including pros and cons such as uploading photos from your Media Library or from your phone’s camera, and a good post preview. The downside is not being able to copy and paste links and text. It’s all hand HTML coding, too. There are a lot of WordPress mobile options for blogging and keeping up with your WordPress blog via your cell phone.

WordPress Now Rules a Nation: Simon Dickson announced at WordCamp UK that Number 10 Downing new site will be on WordPress.
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