February 2009 - Earning, Blogging, Tips and More

I Love My Windows Live SkyDrive

We bloggers have so many stories, pictures, videos, and programs to share. That is why it would be convenient to store them all in one place to avoid mess and confusion. But where? In the laptop or desktop? In a CD/DVD? In a flash drive? The aforementioned can be risky when handled without caution. A laptop's memory or hard drive could get busted. A CD can get lost anytime, scratched to doom sometimes. And a flash drive can be either lost or dead anytime. I am not saying those are not good places to store your files (for blogging or not). I am saying that there is one alternative to have the following:

store all your files
accessible anywhere as long as internet is connected
pretty much large storage capacity
free
a lot of user-friendly functions

And what is it? It is Windows Live SkyDrive, Microsoft's file storage and sharing service that allows users to upload files, then access them from a web browser. Currently, SkyDrive has a capacity of 25 Gigabytes (starting a months ago only from 5 GB), enough to store many songs, videos and other multimedia. Let's take a look:

You need to have a Windows Live ID to be able to use the SkyDrive. The Windows Live ID can also be used to access other features from Windows Live.

The maximum file size per upload is 50MB, which is already big enough. The disadvantage is that you could only upload 5 files together. There is no bulk uploader unlike some file storage systems.

RSS feeds for the content of public folders is also available.

The SkyDrive is basically just like any other file storage service (free or not) available in the internet. What probably makes it more user-friendly is that it is just within one account with your Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces, and other Windows Live services.

With SkyDrive, keeping all your blogging files and multimedia in one place wouldn't be much of a problem anymore, plus the capability of accessing it anywhere around the world.

Buzz Map Tag Cloud From Searchles To Be Released Soon

The release of the Searchles Contextual Related Content Widget for Blogs has been quite a success. People have accepted the release in a good way. I am even quite impressed of such widget and am using it now on all my blogs.

Now, there's a good news. A new widget from Searchles will be released this coming February 23, 2009. The new widget is simply a buzz map tag cloud. But what makes it special is that it is "conversation-tracking" or "conversation-gauging". Why is this so? Tags don't act like just the ordinary tags of old tag cloud widgets. This widget will automatically update tags based on user comments, posts, and live discussions within the blog or website community.

So we could truly appreciate such widget, let us see an example. This widget has already been installed on The Washington Post and is been running well.

To check out and try the widget yourself, go to this article on the Washington Post.

The tag cloud looks pretty good personally. It would be a great addition to the top-needed widgets for a blog. I will (we all should) wait for the official release of this widget so I could try it immediately on my blogs. I will update this blog as soon as the tag cloud widget will be released.

Why Do You Blog?

There are some unique questions that sometimes bug my mind. Questions like why do I blog, what am I blogging for and the likes just pop out on empty moments. And if I would to be asked in an ambush-like manner, I'd probably go blank. Have you had similar questions?

I also wonder if there are equally different number of reasons as the number of bloggers are. So why not look at some possible and common reasons why bloggers really do blog -- the honest reasons. We might not know, you might find your answers here.

Blogging For Personal Purposes - Of course you can. This is why blogs were made. Blogs were not made originally for the likes of internet marketing guru Doshdosh and online million maker such as John Chow. Blogs are more commonly known before as online diaries. They are still though nowadays. However, we all stick some dollar sign beside it. Symptoms: Every detail of personal life is posted, sometimes creating like a life log book

Blogging For Money - A lot of new bloggers (and old alike) probably fall below this one. Why should we deny that we need some money right now? Blogging for money is one good step as long as you have your good intentions. And blogging for money is also one step to becoming rich. Ooops, you better not live on that one. Blogging for money can be like any other job, just so you know. It is hard and it takes a long way before you reach the top. Symptoms: Too much paid posts, affiliate banners and links and advertising

Blogging For Fame - Someone who can't be a "somebody" in the real world would possibly aim to become one in the virtual world. There is some egoistic approach to this one and only psychologists know if this is a good thing or not. But some famous bloggers really don't fall under this one. Sometimes, when you blog naturally, you get the best from the online world. Symptom: Self-praising, addictive attention seeking

Blogging For Friendship - Some poor guys who are friendless and less social offline can be very active online. When you make new friends you get to have an inner satisfaction knowing you have connected with somebody new. Again, only psychologists could give light on the issues concerning this but personally, it is a good thing to blog for friends. There are a lot of great people online that you would miss when you are 100% offline. Of course, blogging for friends can also just come as a side dish. Symptom: Collecting friends

Blogging To Share Knowledge - I honestly believe people like this exist. There are some people who would love to just impart to readers what they know, what they have experienced and what they have taken in through the years without asking something in return. Sounds like a very heavenly person? Nah. Even though some bloggers fall under this one, it is rare to meet someone who is 100% giver and 0% taker. It'd be a pleasure to know one. I even don't think that person exists. We are all ego-driven by the way. Symptom: Loves to share

Those 5 may be the most common, but again there are millions of other reasons you might pick up somewhere, or even from your brain. We as individuals live on proportionally individual reasons. The same thing with blogging. Is blogging for nothing existent? No, I don't think so. You can't be lifeless and blog for utterly no reason at all. There must be something. And I guess most of bloggers would have that as an answer. But that only means one is confused to the real reason why one is blogging. What I'm trying to say is that would it be better if we know the real reasons why we blog? Probably yes. But some can live without knowing that reason. You get to choose.

Photo by Oberazzi

Entrecard's New Features: Useful Or Not?

Entrecard is definitely growing. I believe so. Many people said that Entrecard will die soon but the reverse is happening. It has been doing some major upgrades in its features. I just hope it will not be too much upgrading that it'll result to a mess.

I just received in my e-mail the latest newsletter from Entrecard. They are introducing two new features in their site for the bloggers.

EC Credit To Become New Online Currency?

Entrecard is now having its very own marketplace that allows bloggers to sell products or services. The good thing is that it is not strict into the classification of products. You can actually sell products that are not related with blogging in any way. But for now, the listings found in the marketplace are all blogging-related. Let's all wait for something unusual to be listed there, like some second-hand gagdet perhaps?

All Entrecard members are also automatic eligible sellers. Another addition to the marketplace is escrow which is some sort of trust account or measure. From Entrecard:

A great improvement we have made to the Marketplace system is escrow. When you sell an item in our shop, and someone buys it, the credits from the buyer are automatically placed into an escrow account. When the Buyer received the item, they mark it as received and the credits are released to the seller.

So amounting all this, does it mean EC credits will become the new currency online? Judging the whole system, I could say that it is a good improvement as it is an opportunity to sellers. But that is for the time being. We don't know what the marketplace will look like in a month's time. Let's just hope it won't be a total mess.

Social Network Visibility

Entrecard has also added a tiny feature for the profile page. Links to your other social networks can now be placed on your profile.

Those in the picture are the only social networks you can place on your profile. I guess they still lack a lot on this one when you compare them to how MyBlogLog or Blog Catalog connects to your other social networks. My profile now looks like this after updating that one above:

Now the links of my Twitter, MyBlogLog and Facebook have been integrated in my profile.

But honestly, this feature should have came out long time ago. This is very simple but is still useful anyways. You get visibilty for your other social network accounts.

Final Notes

I have nothing much to say about the new features since they are still new. Let us just all wait what will happen to the marketplace after some time. There will be some changes surely.

It is good to know the Entrecard team is still doing some hard work to improve the whole system and add features that would somehow benefit the members.

So what are you waiting now? Head up to the marketplace or update your profile!

Contextual Related Content Widget for Blogs Released

Last month, I have discussed about 5 Widgets A Blog Must Have On The Sidebar and talked about why these 5 widgets are essential for a blog to be both reader-friendly and Google-friendly.

In this post, I will talk about only one widget which is as important as the 5 widgets I've discussed in my other post. I did not include it in the previous list because it is not only for the sidebar but also can also be placed right after every post.

Contextual Related Content Widget from Searchles

Searchles is a highly scalable "social search" platform. It has just released a Related Content Widget for blogs and websites. What it does is to accurately list down the most relevant posts to the post you are reading. A Related Content widget is very useful to ensure that your readers get what they are finding and will also make them explore your site more. Readers won't leave your blog/site immediately if they see related and interesting posts to be read.

5 Reasons To Choose The Searchles Related Content Widget

In-depth search technology - Unlike other built-in related posts widget for blogs that use tags as basis, this widget from Searchles analyzes relationships and concepts instead to find the most relevant posts.

Greater Accuracy - Searchles is saying that their widget's accuracy is far off from that of other related content plug-ins available. They recommend seeing Denver Post. I, of course went to take a look at the site. Click on the image to enlarge.

I am looking at the San Luis man ordered to stand trial in son's death article and from the Related Content Widget (see large version), we would see how related the listed posts are to the current post. I guess they really have some right to say that their widget is of greater accuracy; and Denver Post is not just any other website.
Make Money from Targeted Ad Revenue - You could actually make money from this widget through the PTC ads below it. I guess this is one good feature too -- function and benefit in one.

Simple Installation - This is easy to install in Blogger blogs. Just customize the widget then copy and paste a code into the raw code of the blog. For Wordpress, a plugin is to be installed.

Customizable - The widget is easily customizable. See how the widget from Denver Post and from this blog (look at the end of this post) differs.

Personal Views on the Searchles Related Content Widget

As soon as I have heard about this widget through the e-mail sent by their CEO Elias Shams, I immediately signed up, learned the features and installed the widget. I opted to put it below every post as I believe that that is the perfect place for the widget to be most effective.

I would rate the widget an 8 out of 10. Basically, the widget is very useful. This blog isn't built with any related post plug-in or widget so my previous Recent Posts widget is really ugly and I just don't like it. Searchles Related Content widget is like a gift. The two things that I don't really like in this widget are: (1) It is using JavaScript so it means more loading time for my blog and cannot be viewed when JS is turned off and (2) Customizing is okay but it lacks more customizable features.

But as a whole, I recommend this widget to others who may want to try it or even use it right away. Aside from its function, it is also a way to earn some money (CTR of 8% according to the CEO). The best way to test out the widget is try it out yourself. Check out the links below:

What Sets You Apart From Other Bloggers?

Whether we like it or not, there are already millions of bloggers worldwide. Ever since the advent of blogging, more and more people went online just to find opportunities not available in the offline world. Blogging is one of the most popular way to open a lot of earning-related opportunities. Each day, a new person starts to blog. By the end of this year, there would probably be 100 million bloggers worldwide.

Small Number of Quality Blogs

With many millions of bloggers and their blogs, do you think that is enough to say that we have reached the golden age of blogging? A lot wouldn't think so. If we would put side by side all the blogs worldwide, I guess it would just be easy to handpick the good ones -- the good-quality ones. I don't even think so that the number of good blogs reach one-fourths of the whole blog populace.

What Sets You Apart From The Rest Of The Million?

Are you just one of those bloggers who never sought ways to improve their blogs? Is your blog just a face in the crowd? Here are some pointers to think about to stand out in the blogosphere:

Originality - Nothing beats original. An original blog is one worth reading because the ideas and infos would not be entirely the same as the other blogs. Originality is a grave issue especially when plagiarism comes in. I don't get it why some bloggers just copy articles from other blogs, even sometimes not acknowledging the source. If your blog, your posts, ideas, your design, is original, then you wouldn't find it hard to make your blog unforgettable and reader-friendly.
Post Quality - So what if your blog is entirely original but the posts are nonsensical? Nobody would probably even remember your blog's name. We are talking about content here. I know some of you may be tired of hearing content issues over and over again. We couldn't help it; content is truly king. If you make the best posts in the world, nobody would ever forget you and your blog. That simple. Don't make your posts sound like that of everybody else.
Excitement - Give your blog some spice! A boring blog would do no good. Do something exciting for your readers -- an interactive activity probably. You need not to be online all the time. There are many ways to be creative about your blog. The more exciting, the better. Just don't overdo it; many would think your blog's a circus.
Be What You Truly Are - Stop mimicking other bloggers. Well you can actually learn from them but don't follow everything from them. The formula is "be yourself". Readers wouldn't find it hard to remember you if you just stay real and natural. Everyone is unique in different ways. It is good to radiate that uniqueness in your blogging career. Never become a copycat.

Final Notes

The aforementioned four pointers are not the only things one must learn to have a smooth and successful blogging life. Again, each person's uniqueness is a cradle of varying ideas that may either form greater ideas or clash and be gone. Blogging is like school -- we learn a lot everyday whether we like it or not. With the question "What sets you apart from other bloggers?", you could probably reflect that on your own and get an answer. Don't hurry; you could answer that question even one year from now. Just keep your blog growing, like what my blog is doing now.

Photo by baonguyen