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What You Need to Know about WordPress 2.7 Posted: 18 Nov 2008 04:18 PM PST WordPress 2.7 is already released in beta and will go live shortly for all. I was lucky enough to get a demo of it at BlogWorldExpo a couple of months back and I have to say that I’m quite excited by what I saw. It is very different to look at and will take some getting used to but having had the changes explained to me I think there’s a lot to like about WordPress 2.7 (particularly some of the configurable options of layout in the back end, comment moderation and plugin management). If you’re going to be upgrading and want a little tour of the new features check out Aaron Brazell’s great post 10 Things You Need to Know about WordPress 2.7 which will run you through some of the new features, design and usability. Tags: Blog Platforms, blog tools, wordpress Share This

The Power Of Collaboration In Today’s Blogging World - 10 Reasons to Find a Blog Buddy Posted: 18 Nov 2008 06:05 AM PST Working alone as a blogger can at times be lonely. In this guest post two bloggers, Eric Hamm from Up-And-Coming-Blogger and “Motivate Thyself” and Sean Platt from Writer Dad have together written a post outlining some of the advantages of collaborating as bloggers and finding a ‘blog buddy’. This is the first part in a 2 part series. Granted, Leonardo Da Vinci probably didn’t want anyone messing around with his mojo, but there isn’t any doubt that for the majority of us, two minds are definitely better than one. It’s just simple math. We, instead of I, means more goals accomplished, and broader breath for every idea. Saying the Internet’s big is a Rushmore of understatement. Our computers are planets, the Internet a galaxy. Viewed from afar, there are a billion points of light, but swimming in the middle of it all, it is easy to feel alone among the black. Finding a comfortable orbit isn’t immediate, but if you stick with blogging, it is an eventuality. Blogopolis bursts with neighborhood upon neighborhood, brimming with amazing people. Some we meet while a guest at their blogs, while reading their words and observe perspective. Some we meet below the belt of our own blog, bantering among the comments. Others send us an email; a more private venue to foster a friendship. Advantages to having a blogging buddy. You can feedback on posts, prior to pressing publish. Writing without a sounding board can be difficult. Writing without a sounding board when we’re about to publish our thought for world consumption can be terrifying. Having someone with whom to send our words for perusal can make all the difference in how we feel about our work. Sometimes, feedback is as simple as a good job! or a quickly corrected comma. Other times a slow down! or a what exactly are you trying to say? might be more in order. Good or bad, a buddy can help lead us in the right direction You can have someone to vent to, who understands your situation. Blogging is difficult. No one understands this essential truth better than another blogger. Most of us suffer common setbacks. Simply knowing that someone else is feeling, or has felt, something similar, can be all we need to know our feelings are only fleeting. You can work on projects together. Collaboration is one of the great joys of blogging. Cooperation comes in many forms, and often by surprise, but pooling minds on a joint project offers pleasure like little else. Swapping ideas through email or instant message is immediate and often amusing. Inspiration will surely abound, and take you to wonderful places you were never even planning to go. You can share link love. It’s well established that links are the currency of the net. They strengthen our rating with analytic aggregators such as Technorati and Alexa, while erecting new roads for readers to reach our words. Having a buddy that we can count on to help generate links is like having a friend post flyers to our show on telephone poles across the city. You can share each others posts through social media and with other bloggers. Social media plays an enormous role in helping drive blogs toward success, and can sometimes be the difference between breaking out and blowing up. When it comes to outlets such as Twitter and StumbleUpon, every blogger brings a different audience. Even with audience overlap, a post spread by your blogging buddy will extend to a different audience than your own. You can share communities. Each post develops our community further. Every blog has its own set of readers and subscribers who drop in to say hello. Commitment is a natural byproduct of community. A buddy blogger can ask his audience to give your work a chance. A portion of the audience will be happy to comply, and that chance could make all the difference. You can help each other stay motivated as you share encouragement. The peaks and valleys of daily blogging lend themselves well to the buddy system. Just as one buddy sees a lull in subscribers, the other may be experiencing a peak. That peak could be a prompt for encouragement. Your buddy is part of your team. Success for one means success for all. All it takes is the proper mindset; choose to celebrate successes, and supersede all difficulty. You can guest post for each other. Guest posts are an excellent way to build your name brand, while continuing to refine your craft. Landing a guest post, especially in the beginning, can be difficult. With a blogging buddy, it’s as simple as trading baseball cards. You can share each others talents. People are different, and bring separate skill sets to the table. Some people tend to be more creative, while others might display a stronger technical side. Fate seems to have an odd way of laying opposites together, and often you will find that the talents of your blogging buddy, or buddies, will nicely compliment your own. You’ll have twice the blogging power at your disposal. Getting started blogging is hard, gaining momentum even more so. Having twice the reach, or at least twice the intent, can be the difference between barely eking by, and soaring through the stratosphere. The main thing to remember is patience. As in life, true friendship cannot be forced. Be honest about who you are and what you offer, and the right buddy will find you. Stay tuned to ProBlogger’s RSS feed because tomorrow Eric and Sean follow this post up with some tips on HOW to find a blogging buddy. Share This

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