blogging

Here are the some of the blogs I've read this week and thought were worth sharing:

www.drawncloser.com - My new favorite comic strip, drawn by my friend Jimmy Steen.  You can also follow him on Twitter at @steenfamily. 

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/23-essential-elements-of-sharable-blog-posts/ - Chris has some good tips for making people want to share your blog posts.  I'm probably not following any of them right now, but for those of you trying to get started with a blog, some good advice.  Do as I say, not as I do, my Dad used to say...

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/graduate-school-for-unemployed-college-students.html -  Seth Godin has some good advice for college graduates who can't find a job-- Learn something new! Volunteer!  Start a business!   Good advice for anyone, really...

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/06/is-momblogging-the-new-radio.html - NYC Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson talks about Mom-bloggers and how they are influencing the spread of new music.  Worth reading for moms and bloggers and especially mom-bloggers.

Enjoy!

I read quite a number of blogs ever week, but I spend very little time "surfing the Web."  Instead, I subscribe to blogs using RSS, or Real Simple Syndication.  My RSS Reader is Google Reader.  When I find a new blog that I like, I subscribe to it by looking for the following image and clicking on it.

If you want to understand RSS better, you should take a look at this video from CommonCraft:

The January 14 episode (click to download) of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast had an excellent interview with Seth Godin, talking about the opportunities for small businesses and individuals in the current economic climate.   As usual, Seth motivated me, and as a result, I am blogging again. 

Ever wonder what is the most popular site on the Web?  ComScore is a business that measures traffic on the Web and publishes it on a subscription basis.  Below is  Comscore's listing of the current Top 50 sites on the Web (for the U.S).  You can find this yourself by going to http://www.comscore.com/press/data.asp and clicking on United States. 

comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)           October 2008           Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations           Unique Visitors (000)           Source: comScore Media Metrix           Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)   Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)   Total Internet : Total Audience 190,616         1 Google Sites 147,035   26 Superpages.com Network 29,387 2 Yahoo! Sites 144,903   27 Verizon Communications Corporation 28,094 3 Microsoft Sites 123,483   28 Gorilla Nation 27,218 4 AOL LLC 111,259   29 Bank of America 26,414 5 Fox Interactive Media 90,636   30 United Online, Inc 26,280 6 eBay 70,737   31 Everyday Health 25,781 7 Ask Network 70,449   32 WordPress 25,392 8 Wikimedia Foundation Sites 63,275   33 NBC Universal 24,896 9 Amazon Sites 60,099   34 Answers.com Sites 24,865 10 Glam Media 56,640   35 Shopzilla.com Sites 24,350 11 CBS Corporation 52,680   36 Demand Media 23,657 12 New York Times Digital 49,324   37 Weatherbug Property 23,531 13 Turner Network 49,186   38 Monster Worldwide 23,363 14 Apple Inc. 48,673   39 CareerBuilder LLC 23,309 15 FACEBOOK.COM 45,954   40 Photobucket.com LLC 23,271 16 Viacom Digital 45,884   41 JPMorgan Chase Property 23,142 17 AT&T Interactive Network 37,036   42 Real.com Network 23,024 18 craigslist, inc. 36,732   43 Gannett Sites 22,651 19 Adobe Sites 36,004   44 AT&T, Inc. 22,248 20 Weather Channel, The 34,717   45 ESPN 21,941 21 Time Warner - Excluding AOL 33,415   46 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 21,124 22 Wal-Mart 33,038   47 WebMD Health 19,623 23 Comcast Corporation 31,250   48 WhitePages 19,267 24 Target Corporation 30,950   49 WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites 19,017 25 Disney Online 30,209   50 Expedia Inc 18,402

One of the challenges of building a large Web site is getting the technical people to work with the graphic design and marketing people.  The city of Columbia, SC recently experienced this exact problem when the technical department unveiled their $107,000 web site just days before the marketing department was planning to launch their own $10,000 redesign of the site. 

Barack Obama has created change.gov as part of his transition to the Oval Office.  In addition, he has said he will appoint a Chief Technology Officer and will push to get broadband access to all Americans.  This is a good thing. 

Additionally, he has said he will have a five-day online comment period prior to signing any non-emergency legislation.  This is also a good thing. 

One of the things that increases your "Google Juice" is "Link Love." I'm helping a friend build a Web site about Trout fishing, called www.TroutU.com. I was explaining that Google and other search engines give high credibility to sites that have a lot of links to it, coming from other sites. He asked me how to get others to link to his site, which is a great question.

I found this article, talking about a new hosted blogging platform called OnSugar.com. I may have to check it out and see how it compares to my Broadstreet Blog.

I originally had a "slogan" for my site that was something like "Thoughts about Drupal and Doing Business on the Web." OK, but nothing to write home about. Then I thought of this one: Because there's more to life than pizza. Of course this is a reference to my New York Pizza Blog and the New York Pizza Finder. It really is a much clearer picture of why I'm doing this blog. I have really struggled with coming up with new things to say about New York Style Pizza.