Posts Tagged technorati

WordCamp Workshop – Blog Networks and Aggregators

Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, internet, social media on May 21, 2010

At WordCamp Victoria on May 15, 2010, I facilitated a workshop entitled “Blog Networks and Aggregators”.

Blog Networks are sort of out of vogue these days, so I wanted to host a workshop on the topic to see what others thought, and to share a bit of my own research. About 30 people attended.

My research consisted of two good stories on the topic, which I passed around:

The topic of planets, which are sort of aggregators around very specific niches (or specific organizations) was discussed for part of the workshop. You see these popping up a fair bit these days, and certainly if one was to start a topical blog aggregator, this might be the software to look at.

The conclusion was basically that there could be some value in joining blog networks, akin to the time it might take promoting link exchanges with other bloggers, and submitting your website to various directories – i.e., if you’re watching TV and playing around on the computer, sign up for a blog network during the commercials.

These were my top 6 choices:

Others that came up during the discussion, include:

Some niche sites included:

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WordPress Plugins, Widgets and Must-Dos (Part 2)

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on July 20, 2009

Back in April, I wrote an article with the same title.

Since then, we have moved along to WordPress 2.8.2. If WordPress was amazing in April, it’s phenomenal in July! You are now able to update WordPress from within WordPress. You now browse, install, update and delete plugins and themes from within WordPress, too. FTP? What the heck is FTP?

Here are the main updates:

Tweetmeme – This plugin has improved dramatically. It will now “RT” the Twitter account of your choice, and they are beginning to implement API support for several prominent URL shortening services.

Sociable – This is the most incredible plugin I have encountered, and regret that I never came across it before. Allow your readers to instantly add links to all those social networks, social bookmarkers, and social whatever else in existence.

Feedburner – I am a late convert to Feedburner. The statistics alone make it worthwhile, but the other features that exist are incredible, including e-mail subscriptions. For WordPress, there is a plugin called FD Feedburner, which will redirect your feed automatically (note: when submitting your site to aggregators such as Technorati and MyBlogLog, disable this plugin temporarily).

DISQUS Comment System – There are a few “comment systems” out there now that replace the built-in WordPress system, and it’s gravatar world. I have found DISQUS to be the best so far. People set up a DISQUS account, or they connect to your blog using Twitter, Facebook or OpenID. This system adds a pretty neat new dynamic to your website.

I mentioned community features in the original, as well. In my opinion, the features in DISQUS puts Friend Connect and Twitter Remote to shame (at least, for now).

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