Da New Ish 2007
Music Players
ClearBlogs.com is thrilled to present this contribution from Delores; her blog is among our Staff Favorites. We hope this is the first of many entries...she calls it; "So your posts won't fall on deaf ears..."Adding some cool gadgets to your blog is part of the fun of keeping up an online journal. I admit, I have played around with website design and blogs since the internet became available (yes, I'm of the underprivileged Generation X who didn't have an inkling as to what the internet was when I was in high school.) But I've always kept a journal and when the availability of free webspace came upon us, I was eager to jump into anoynymous online familiarity. Finally, I was able to publish my thoughts!
Since I am a writer, my blog posts are mainly content based but aside from literature, my counterpoint love is music. Now that I have a firm grasp on how I want my blog set up and the various things I can add to my site, I'd share some basic options that everyone should be able to have fun with.
Project Playlist was my most recent discovery that I came upon in my search for cool stuff to add to my blog. Since the size of the player is too wide, I opted to add it into my current blog post as a "soundtrack to my lfe right now" form of entertainment. You can see the Playlist in action in one of my blog entries here: You Can Hear A Piano Fall
To get your own playlist, go to http://www.projectplaylist.com/ and click on "My Account" to Create a free account. Once your new user registration is confirmed, your can start using the music search engine to find bands and songs you would like to add to your playlist.
For this post, I will search for the band The Hourly Radio that provides me with a long list of songs, but only nine of the songs are actually by this band. I click on the link with the band and song title to see if the song if actually the one I would like to use. In this instance, the first song, The Hourly RadioTravelsigns", is the correct song I would like to add to my playlist.
I then click on the "+" (plus) button next to the song title link to add it to my playlist. I am then taken to a new page that asks me to double check the song by pressing the large "preview" arrow. This ensures that the song file will work if I add it to the playlist. In this case it does. Therefore, I click "It works! Add it to my playlist!" If it had not, I would have clicked "Doesn't work! Go back and search for another track" to see if there is another link to the song that will play.
After I had added "Travelsigns", I am taken to another page that lets tells you that the track has successfully been added. You now have the option (to the left hand side of the page) to "Continue" and this will take me back to my original seach using the band name or I can "Go to My Playlists."
When I go to my Playlist, I find lots of options, but the one I'm mainly concerned about is the "Add your playlist to your MySpace." Now, you do not have to have a MySpace account to use this playlist. When I click on "add your playlist to your MySpace" I find the link stating, "get the Playlist code for MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, hi5, or any other site." This is what I want!
The next page asks me what kind of site I have, to which I answer "E. Get the code for any other social network, blog or your own personal website>>" Next I am asked which playlist I want to get the code for. Since I only have one current playlist, I only have one option.
After clicking on "deloresdefacto's playlist" I am asked if I want my playlist to autostart when someone opens up my webpage. I opt for yes, just to give someone an unexpected thrill. Also, the options are if I want the songs randomly shuffled, to which i pick "yes" and if I want to use a custom skin. I don't have one, so I leave the answer to "no." I do, however, specify that my color of my player be "black" because, like everything else, it goes with everything.
I click on "Get Code" and am taken to a new page with my own personal playlist all typed out for me. All I have to do, as the instructions say, is "copy and paste this code into your profile or website." I opted to post it to my current entry because the size is just too large for a sideblog widget. However, if you are a big HTML savvy, I would play around with the width code to change " 435" to something more manageable if I wanted to add it into my sideblog. Maybe I'll make a scaled down playlist for my sideblog later. My full profile and playlist information can be seen on the playlist website here: Project Playlist -- DeloresDefacto
Box.Net Widget is the small sideblog music player is able to be added to a template. The only hitch here is that you have to already have bought the music and have it uploadable from your hard drive. Still, for what it's worth, it's a nice little tool to add on the side. Just click on "browse" to search for the three songs you have on your hard drive that you would like to share. Include your email and password to create a new account and then click "Upload" to create the widget. This will take some time as the MP3 files will be large. Once they have loaded, you can copy and paste the code into your ClearBlog template. When adding the Box.Net Widget, look for the "< !-- BEGIN RIGHTSIDE -->" tag in your "Template / Edit Template" field. It is best to look for the way some of your sidebar catagories are sectioned off, such as mine all begin with a "< H3>Category Title< /H3>" code.
As always, you can see me at www.clearblogs.com/deloresdefacto or my website at www.deloresdefacto.com or email here.
Later, ~ Delores "
Grave Threat
The 1944 Bretton Woods agreement solidified the dollar as the preeminent world reserve currency. Due to our political and military muscle, and because we had a huge amount of physical gold, the world readily accepted our dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The dollar was said to be “as good as gold,” and convertible to all foreign central banks at that rate.
Amazingly, a new system was devised which allowed the U.S. to operate the printing presses for the world reserve currency with no restraints placed on it – not even a pretense of gold convertibility. Though the new policy was deeply flawed, it nevertheless opened the door for dollar hegemony to spread. Realizing the world was embarking on something new, elite money managers, with especially strong support from U.S. authorities, struck an agreement with OPEC to price oil in U.S. dollars exclusively for all worldwide transactions. This gave the dollar a special place among world currencies and in essence “backed” the dollar with oil. In return, the U.S. promised to protect the various oil-rich kingdoms in the Persian Gulf against threat of invasion or domestic coup. The arrangement gave the dollar artificial strength, with tremendous financial benefits for the United States. It allowed us to export our monetary inflation by buying oil and other goods at a great discount as dollar influence flourished.
This post-Bretton Woods system was much more fragile than the system that existed between 1945 and 1971. Though the dollar/oil arrangement was helpful, it was not nearly as stable as the pseudo–gold standard under Bretton Woods. During the 1970s the dollar nearly collapsed, as oil prices surged and gold skyrocketed to $800 an ounce. By 1979 interest rates of 21% were required to rescue the system. Once again the dollar was rescued, and this ushered in the age of true dollar hegemony lasting from the early 1980s to the present. With tremendous cooperation coming from the central banks and international commercial banks, the dollar was accepted as if it were gold.
The agreement with OPEC in the 1970s to price oil in dollars has provided tremendous artificial strength to the dollar as the preeminent reserve currency. This has created a universal demand for the dollar, and soaks up the huge number of new dollars generated each year. The artificial demand for our dollar, along with our military might, places us in the unique position to “rule” the world without productive work or savings, and without limits on consumer spending or deficits.
Most importantly, the dollar/oil relationship has to be maintained to keep the dollar as a preeminent currency. Any attack on this relationship will be forcefully challenged – as it already has been. In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat. There was no public talk of removing Saddam Hussein because of his attack on the integrity of the dollar as a reserve currency by selling oil in Euros. Many believe this was the real reason for our obsession with Iraq. I doubt it was the only reason, but it may well have played a significant role in our motivation to wage war. Within a very short period after the military victory, all Iraqi oil sales were carried out in dollars. The Euro was abandoned.
In 2001, Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA. After these attempts to nudge the Euro toward replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency were met with resistance, the sharp fall of the dollar against the Euro was reversed. These events may well have played a significant role in maintaining dollar dominance.
Now, a new attempt is being made against the petrodollar system. Iran, another member of the “axis of evil,” has announced her plans to initiate an oil bourse. The oil sales will be priced Euros, not dollars. If oil markets replace dollars with Euros, it would in time curtail our ability to continue to print, without restraint, the world’s reserve currency.
It is an unbelievable benefit to us to import valuable goods and export depreciating dollars. Our intense effort to spread our power in the oil-rich Middle East is not a coincidence. But unlike the old days, we don’t declare direct ownership of the natural resources – we just insist that we can buy what we want and pay for it with our paper money. Any country that challenges our authority does so at great risk. Given the fact that Iran now sells over 60% of its oil in Euros, consider this grave threat to the United States as you watch events unfold.
Bloodbath
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The uprecendented expansion of credit appears to be coming to an end. For years, the mantra of "excess liquidity" was repeated daily in the financial press and its retail outlet of CNBC and Fox Business News. The cheap money policies of Alan Greenspan, taken to the extreme by the Wall Street crowd are over. Read the Stock Market Meltdown for the details.
Aren't you tired of hearing about hearing that the recent turmoil in the credit markets is confined to the subprime marketplace; the no documentation loans, little to no money down, not a prayer of paying the money back, have no business buying a home crowd. Then two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns implode and American Home Mortgage Investment Corp, the 10th largest mortgage lender and outside the subprime arena, declares bankruptcy. Be prepared for the so-called "adjustments" as debt and equity markets around the world re-price risk. Who is holding those trillions of dollars of collaterialized debt obligations ("CDO's"), mortgage backed securities, repos, swaps and alphabet soup of exotic derivatives? What a mess, protect yourself.
Be mindful of what Thomas Jefferson said, "If the American people ever let private banks to control the issue of our currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up with deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
The Big Lie
“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.” Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1967
Texas Congressman Ron Paul reveals "the truth" about our current monetary system to Mr. Greenspan.
Reagan
Ronald Reagan was "my" president. The deep feelings he inspired in me as a young man certainly influence my opinion of his legacy. Regardless, as I glance across the current political landscape -- the democrats in Congress call for the same prescription; government should do more, this group or that group require special treatment and the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes. More recently, seemingly taking the view that America is the primary source of the world's shortcomings -- destroying the environment, projecting military power for its oil interests and forcing our culture on the rest of the world. Of course, let's not forget the incessant blaming of George W. Bush for one item after another...accusing him of the fatal sin, "being a conservative." (If he was only half as conservative as their rhetoric implied, I would actually be happy. How can his new medicare entitlements, unwillingness to protect our borders and budget deficits could be described as anything but liberal, I will never know!)
All of this is in stark contrast to my memories of "the great communicator". The democrats always insisted that his success and popularity was based on his personality, how he expressed himself or his "style". Rather, what really mattered was that he said great things that needed to be said. He spoke clearly about soviet expansionism and the threat to human liberty, that taxes were too high and harming the financial security of our citizens or his enduring belief in the American spirit, ideals and founding principles. He brought virtue to the presidency -- guts, determination, humor, a willingness to face the world and tell the truth.
Ronald Reagan's legacy continues to grow as the current political class fails to lead. What has been accomplished by government and the subsequent presidents that has any historical significance? As an seventh-grader, I remember the day President Reagan was shot (was I the only one with a heavy heart that day?) Whether he was comforting a grieving nation after the Challenger accident or demanding that Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall" or constantly reminding us that America was a "shining city on a hill"...did we really understand what a special person was leading our nation? My heart was heavy once again as we mourned his passing. I hope you enjoy this video tribute.
3 Web Directories
The most important key to your blog ranking well on search engines are links from quality web directories. These are referred to as "trusted links" by the search engines which value these links because it means your site or blog has been checked and selected by a human being. Not all web directories are created equal and you must be careful about where you invest your time or money.DMOZ (The Open Directory) - First check that your site or blog is not already listed. If it isn't, look through the directory for the most relevant category. Once you settle into a category that you feel best represents your content, click "Suggest URL" in the menu bar and add your site information. There is no cost for this directory and it can take from weeks to months to be listed.
Aviva Directory - This may be the least well-known of the three but likely the most important for a blog. For a small investment of $49.95, you are provided with a link to your blogsite + three additional links. This site is also a great resource for bloggers!
Yahoo Directory - If you have a well-developed blog, and a few dollars to spend on marketing, consider a paid link to Yahoo. The non-refundable $299 is not insignificant for the average blogger but worth it if your blog has great content in need of an audience.
In addition to the "trusted link" you will enjoy, these top web directories may also send you traffic like a search engine.
What is a blog?
A "weblog" is a webpage that consists of text added on a regular basis called "posts". Each post has a date entry and they are usually presented in reverse chronological order...with the most recent post on the top.The content of the blog may filter other webpages by presenting links with the bloggers comments. Blogs can also be an online journal of the author's thoughts, feelings, observations...or in diary format. They can be focused efforts in a particular subject area by an amateur or professional. They can be just about anything you want them to be!
In short, blogs are firmly established as the simplest forum for the average person to create their voice on the internet. Here are some samples of blogs that I enjoy:
Rebecca Blood - Weblogs: A History and Perspective
Cameron Barrett - Anatomy of a Weblog
Want to set-up your own blog? You will be "blogging" in minutes...find your voice on the internet at ClearBlogs.com and sign-up for your free account today!
Corporate Blogging
Corporate blogs are weblogs published by organizations for either their internal purposes or more commonly, for public relations, corporate communications and networking.
A comprehensive study was performed by Backbone Media in 2005, 518 bloggers were contacted and 97 people actually took the survey. While corporate blogs are not as prevalent as the media hype indicates, those who do have them are exceeding their preliminary expectations.
They are giving companies the opportunities to connect with their customers on a more personal level, to build trust, collect valuable feedback and strengthen existing relationships. The efforts appear to promote goodwill which leads to sales and marketing gains. The blogger provides help, ideas, useful and up-to-date information…and readers comment, post and trackback to a blogging community. This creates a viral effect spreading out across the blogosphere. This connection with customers and other interested parties also provide an opportunity to better serve those constituencies leading to greater goodwill.
The businesses enjoy word-of-mouth marketing, both offline and on, increased press coverage, higher search engine rankings, increased lead generation and goodwill. In fact, they found that corporations with between 1-100 employees are the most likely to having active corporate blogging efforts. In my opinion, it is exactly these "smaller businesses" that can benefit the most from corporate blogging.
Corporate Blogging - 72 page PDF file of the full Backbone Media report.
Blogging Big – If you want to maximize your efforts, you need this information.
corporateblogging.info - Facts, news and discussion on corporate and business blogging.
CopyBlogger
As the owner of a blogsite, I read too many blogs. I have found that most bloggers, especially those new to the medium, are overly focused on the "look" of their blog. They tinker with the header, color schemes, adding widgets to their sidebar and trying to present just the right image. I don't think many of them ask the most fundamental question when creating a blog: What do the readers want?Notice I did not use the term "viewer". Certainly the initial visual impact of your blog has some relevance to attracting and retaining visitors. But to be blunt, I have learned that what our visitors really want is regular, original and captivating content. This does not come naturally or without practice to most of us bloggers. If I could make one suggestion to a new member at ClearBlogs.com before they post their first entry; Spend an hour at CopyBlogger.
Here are some of my favorite posts for new bloggers:
5 Immutable Laws of Pursuasive Blogging
10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas that Work
5 Simple Ways to Open your Blog Post with a Bang
And additional "must-reads" for the more experienced blogger:
Winning Copy Appeals to Basic Instincts
The Secret to Effective Content Promotion
The Benjamin Franklin Guide to Marketing your Business Online
Free Images
What are the best websites that offer free stock images? Here are 10 good resources for you to find items to enhance your blog.
1. Stock.xchng - Tons of copyright-free images.
2. Flickr - Probably the best-designed photo sharing site.
3. Webshots - Endless user-submitted photos.
4. EveryStockPhoto - A search engine scouring the Web for free stock images.
5. Fotki - A popular photo sharing community.
6. Fotolog - A photo sharing site with an international focus.
7. Fotologue - A Japanese image sharing site.
8. StockVault - A big vault of free images.
9. Riya - An excellent image search engine.
10. Yotophoto - An image search engine devoted to free images and photos.
Squidoo
One of the most interesting sites to come out of the Web 2.0 phenomenon is Squidoo. If you are not building sites to Squidoo, you are missing one of the quickest and easiest ways to build free traffic for your blog.
Squidoo is a cross between a blog, a mini site, and a My Space page. Squidoo is similar to MySpace where people can login, create their profile, and start collaborating with others who share similar interests. Squidoo calls the sites “lenses” and the people who produce the sites are called “lensmasters.” A lens is easy to make, even if you have not ever built a website or blog before. You can have a lens up and running in as little as 15 minutes. To learn more, here is a great “lens” by the founder, Seth Godin to explaining why you should build a lens.
Squidoo lenses are made up of “modules”. Squidoo has dozens of modules to choose from. There are modules for making lists. There are modules for YouTube videos. There are modules for Amazon and Ebay auctions. With a little knowledge of the module system, you can have your lens built in no time.
Squidoo lenses often rank very high on Google, so it’s a great chance to build some backlinks to your website or blog. As Squidoo is indexed constantly by the major search engines, and is possibly considered an authority site by Google, it is a good place to put a link to your site or blog. Many marketers are indeed using Squidoo for this purpose and this purpose alone. But just because Google appears to favor Squidoo at the moment, this does not mean this will always be the case. As more lenses are put up, some of which may be of dubious quality, Google may eventually lower its importance.
One of the best ways to use Squidoo to build traffic to your primary blog is by using the RSS feed module. You simply load the RSS feed from your blog and the Squidoo lens will update automatically as you update your blog. As you can tell, Squidoo is a great free and easy way to build traffic.
While at Squidoo, don’t forget to use your specific keywords and a link back to the landing page of your blog. This will this drive targeted traffic to your blog. Squidoo lens are very easy to set up so I won’t go into the mechanics but do remember these three key points:
Choosing a name for your lens - When choosing a name for your lens, this becomes your page title (you can change it later).
Choosing a domain name for your lens - When choosing your page name, remember you should treat this in exactly the same way as you would select a relevant domain or sub-domain name. (This can not be changed later.) By choosing your title and domain name carefully it is relatively easy to get a good natural SERP ranking.
Selecting the right content for your lens - When choosing content for your lens, think of it as you would a landing page. You can add three keywords when you first set up your lens but you can also add more later…do so. Squidoo encourages you to add a whole range of modules, such as Amazon, eBay, etc because that’s how they can best monetize your lens. But remember this is a whole bunch of exit routes away from your lens. I would not use them. However there is one I would use…If you have a related blog that you update regularly, and then add an RSS feed from it to your lens. In that way your lens gets refreshed regularly.
5 Traffic Building Tips
1. Offer to exchange links with other blogsites in a "Links Section"...this helps you improve your ranking at Technorati and among search engines like Google.
2. Link to other sites (traditional websites or blogs) in your side bar or within your posts without reciprocation. Larger sites will not notice but smaller sites definitely will. These sites will almost always return the favor, increasing your opportunities to attract visitors.
3. Submit your blog to all search engines and directories...don't forget to include your blog address in your email signature, business cards, newsletters or other marketing materials.
4. Pinging weblogs (a function available on clearblogs.com) is great but "trackbacking" is better. A trackback is an acknowledgement sent via a network signal (a ping) from the originating site to the receiving site. (This does require both sites to be Trackback enabled for this sort of communication to occur; clearblogs.com does have this functionality). When bloggers write a new entry or refer to an entry on another blog, trackbacks are used to facilitate communication between these blogs. Commenting directly on other blogs (of a related or similar subject matter) helps expose your blog to others. It is critical that your comments are legitimate and not spam.
5. Most important; post often and regularly. Spiders from the search engines will return more frequently, indexing your entire site. It will also bring regular readers back, increasing opportunities for them to link to or share their favorite entries with their network of friends, family and co-workers.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is the process by which users ("visitors") save lists of internet resources they find valuable. These lists can be public or reserved for a specific group of users. Other users can view these resources by keyword, tags, category, topics or at random. This is an evolving process with many services allowing users to subscribe to feeds by subject matter, tags etc so they can learn of new resources as they become available.
This system has many tremendous advantages over more automated resources like search engines. First, this tagging is done by human beings with a much deeper capacity to understand the content not just a software's mathematical attempt to determine the meaning of the content. Second, this system of ranking by users increases the likelihood that highly bookmarked content has greater utility versus automated systems which tend to rank based on the number of links "pointing" to the resource.
For all of these reasons, millions of users are using social bookmarking sites everyday. By seeding your best articles through a combination of popular keywords and specific tags, this can attract a large number of new readers to your blog. These sites are like search engines so think about how you define your tags. You should attempt to blend both general and specific/unique keywords for maximum effectiveness. Here is a short list of the most popular sites worthy of investigation.
Digg -- Delicious -- Reddit -- StumbleUpon -- Yahoo MyWeb -- Furl -- Newsvine
The most important tip to increase your chances for success; include chicklets in your blog template. These small icons below your post or article indicate the availability of an RSS feed and provide a convenient way for visitors to express their approval or subscribe. Do not include to many (it certainly clutters up the space and appears spam-like) but we would suggest at least two; Delicious and Digg are the obvious places to start your efforts. There is no better way to enjoy the effects of viral marketing.
The BIG 25
blog consistently about something you loveinteract with other bloggers
participate in online forums
read the *official* blog and guide
return links
be the first to comment
divide long posts into a reasonable size
write "how-to" and "top-ten" articles
use Google Analytics
de-clutter and embrace white space
use an RSS reader and trackbacks
make it easy for visitors to subscribe
create timeless content
include a picture, avatar, graphic or logo
read problogger.net
submit your articles to directories
use pictures when possible
link to as many other blogs as possible
offer email subscriptions through feedburner
offer useful tools, resources or links
always give your opinion
organize your entries into categories
use Technorati
talk directly to your readers
consider adding podcasts
Feedburner
Are you looking for a way for your visitors to receive your updated content through email? Generally, to "subscribe" to a blog or news feed would require your visitors to utilize an aggregator reader....this certainly is the preferred method for the most advanced internet users. However, it is more likely that your blog is being visited by a more casual, less sophisticated user who does not employ these applications. The answer is simple, provide a method of delivey that nearly everyone uses and is most comfortable; email.
The most prevalent service is provider by "Feedburner"...in fact, you may have noticed the bar in the upper right corner of this blog encouraging visitors to subscribe. It looks like this:
Learn more details on Frequently Asked Questions page at Feedburner. It is free and easy to sign-up...I was able to complete my registration, customization and inserted the code into my blog in about 5 minutes. Once you have activivated your RSS feeds (clearBloggers, click here for more details about RSS activation within your blog), go to this page to register for the service.
Let me pass along a few tips, it may save you a few minutes. First, when you are asked for your website, remember it should be in this format; www.clearblogs.com/your-blog-name. When asked to verify a feed, this can be found under your "Site Feed" tab...it is the first line shown as a hyperlink. Finally, once you create an account and "burn" your feed, be sure to activate the services you want to utlize; they are found in a detailed menu bar on the left hand side of the member area. If you are not familiar with creating code to paste in your blog, it may take you a bit longer through trial-and-error...
Another tool I would suggest using is the promotional features to encourage visitors to subscribe. Below is one that I created that didn't take much effort. I can imagine using this "advertisement" in some interesting ways to encourage visitors to subscribe.
RSS
I read blogs all day long! Don't you? If you read between the lines of most blogs...whether they are for corporate purposes, educational, informational or simply chronicles of the details of the bloggers day-to-day activities...they all say the same thing; please read me. Wouldn't you agree?You may be a frequent reader of blogs (and news sites)...and want to stay on top of the latest entry or story. Maybe you are a blogger or publisher...interested in attracting regular readers. In either case, there is a critical tool to help you. It is called RSS which is an abbreviation for "Real Simple Syndication." It is a family of web feed formats publishers use to publish frequently updated content such as blogs. You should watch this short video for a basic understanding of how all of this works.
In short, this process allows readers to "subscribe" to a web feed so that new content is automatically pushed to them. This saves time and provides a convenient place to aggregate the content you want. It should come as no surprise that the application that is required to make all of this happen is referred to as a "feed aggregator." You may have seen icons or buttons on your most popular websites like these posted below:
Once you have an account established with one of these providers, you can simply click the icon and it will be added to list of sites which push content to you as it is updated. On the other end of the relationship is a publisher who has a new "subscriber" who will automatically receive their content once it is published.
Members of clearblogs.com are encouraged to activate the RSS feed for their blog. This can be done with just a few clicks. First, once you are logged into your account, click on the specific blog you want to activate. Click on "Settings" in the menu bar, then click on "Site Feed". Finally, the first question reads, "Publish Site Feed?" Simply change the pull down tool from NO to YES...you are done! We strongly suggest you take a final step; install the convenient icons noted above into your blog to remind visitors to subscribe and to provide an easy way to do so. Here is how you do it...
Right click on this page and move your cursor to "View Page Source"...this will allow you to see the source code for this entry. (It may take a bit of looking if this is unfamiliar to you, keep scrolling!) Copy and Paste this into your blog. I would suggest that you place it on the column of your blog (either right or left) in a location near the top of that column so it will immediately be seen by your visitors. The last instruction is critcal. You will notice that the source code has the words blog-name-here after www.clearblogs.com/ Replace that placeholder with the name of your blog....for each and every reader icon in the code. Now, you are really done!
Current members should write me if you need help...or to get your own free blog, sign-up here. Enjoy ClearBlogging!
Blogging 101
Are you just getting started on a new blog? As the owner of a blog site with over 13,000 users (and growing by 50 new users every day!)...I read a lot of blogs. Here are some common themes that are consistent among our most popular blogs.Be honest. Don't create a persona that you are not, you certainly will not be able to keep that up for long. It won't take long for readers to figure out you aren't being geniune with them. Trust yourself.
Blog about what you know and be passionate. If visitors want to be misled and bored, they can always watch CNN. It amazes me that almost everyone has a huge knowledge base, about something. If you have a unique insight, intimate knowledge or a variant view...and you can present the subject with enthusiasm, subscribers will find you...and bring a friend when they come back for more.
Have an RSS feed. Make it easy for visitors to read your latest post. The viral impact of those subscribers who refer your site to their friends or place links in their blog to your best content is immeasurable. Make sure your site provides full text RSS and place those convenient icons in your blog to remind visitors to subscribe.
Write often and at regular intervals. Your regular readers will stay interested, your writing skills won't get rusty and your blog will "flow". How many times I have you read an entry that began with an apology for "not writing in a few weeks."
Include links, links, links. Give your readers some place to go to get more information or another opinion. (It is appropriate for me to provide an example by inserting a link to this article. "More Tips for Better Blogging" takes my suggestions to another, sarcastic level.) If you link to other bloggers, they will learn you have linked to them (trust me, they check!)...and at least check-out the "new kid on the block"...you may gain a subscriber, be mentioned in one of their entries or make a new friend. In any case, your readers will appreciate the extra care you have taken to make their time was well-spent.
Looking for a unique blog host, consider clearBlogs.com...and sign-up here!
Welfare Monster
"And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse -- the kind that wrecked ancient
The conservative's, conservative; the former Senator from Arizona and Republican Presidential nominee in 1964. If you are old enough to remember his campaign or want to learn more, it is worthwhile to read the transcript of his acceptance speech. Interested in learning more about the real Barry Goldwater, read this insightful article by the Lighthouse Patriot Journal.
Ground Beneath
"People for the most part stood their ground, but the ground itself gave way beneath them." Joseph Schumpeter, Describing the beginning of the Great DepressionBetter known for his often quoted "Creative Destruction" concept, he certainly had his feet firmly on the ground. My sense is that homeowner's in the United States (including Canada, Australia and Western Europe) will soon feel the ground give way beneath them. To learn the real story about the housing bubble, read Are we Idiot's by Eric Janszen. If you are not familiar with the work of Joseph Schumpeter, you can learn more in this article by Joseph Klesney writing for the Acton Institute entitled "Joseph Schumpeter and the moral economy." Wired Magazine also has a relevant article entitled Creative Destruction.
New Era
“Regrettably, history is strewn with visions of such “new eras” that, in the end, have proven to be a mirage.” Alan Greenspan, February 26, 1997
While I would disagree with the former Federal Reserve Chairman on almost everything he said and did from 1987 to 2006, he sure got this one right. The tech and telecom crash would soon be upon us and the unwinding of the housing and mortgage excesses appear to be underway. For more information about Mr. Greenspan's failings as an Objectivist...read this blog by Nicholas Provenzo, Founder and Chairman of the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism, entitled Alan Greenspan: Ayn Rand's Failed Student for Capital Magazine.
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