This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, a great guest blogging contest, and an amazing timelapse video of the Discovery prepping for take off.
The Resources Mashup
Here are some of the best articles I have stumbled upon and retweeted on @kikolani this week.
Blogging / Writing
- 4 reasons to add a podcast to your blog – if only I could become comfortable with the sound of my own voice on recordings…
- Analyzing the value of a blog post – results of a succeful blog post in terms of social shares, new subscriptions, and conversions.
- 100 hacks to help you become a better writer – a short summary of 100 articles that will help improve your writing skills.
- 20 pages every blogger needs to hvae – I don’t have several on my site, so it’s a good wakeup call.
- 15 tips for attracting and connecting with non-blogging readers – sometimes it’s easy for bloggers to forget about new readers who may have never left a comment or subscribed to an RSS feed before.
Business / Career / Finance
- 25 free marketing resources – search tools, reputation monitoring, design, flowcharts, and more. Many good ones I haven’t heard of but will try out!
- Why your brand needs a villian to succeed – or how brands can triumph by solving major problems.
- Best Yahoo store feeds – for businesses using Yahoo stores, this is a must read.
- 75 big marketing ideas for small marketing budgets – tips applicable to businesses and blogs.
- 28 creative ways to get your marketing message across – tips for freelancers and professionals.
- Stay updated on the latest Facebook privacy changes – from the horse’s mouth.
- Facebook advertising – 10 laws every marketer needs to know – good tips, even if it is a repost from a year ago.
- How to make someone an admin of your Facebook page – nice idea, especially for pages of collaborative blogs and businesses.
- Do you ‘Like’ how I look in these jeans – and how much you really want to know about your online friends.
- 10 takeaways from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerber’s meltdown at the D Conference – or how not to handle pressure.
Humor / Infographics / Inspiration
- What does your email say about you – I feel good about this since I have my own domain and Gmail addresses. Fun tip: Gmail is looked upon as “more professional” than Yahoo, Hotmail, etc., so if you are job hunting, get Gmail.
- Oil spill infographic – find out how bad it really is in an easy to understand graphic.
- 40 inspiring examples of dark websites – some of these did a good job combatting the hard to read on a dark background issue.
- Creative and useful 404 page error design – a nice reminder (again) that I need to change mine up drastically.
- The evolution of television – large, detailed infographic timeline.
Link Building
- How to not start link building – a post on link building mistakes from a year ago that is still applicable today.
- Tips on developing a great viral marketing idea – link building with viral content.
- Build links backwards – what would you do for a link you really want?
- Free link building webinar covering tools to help you succeed in link building on June 10 at 11:30 AM EST – no, it’s not a post, but I figure link building enthusiasts might find it interesting.
- Link building tool interview with Eric Ward – a professional with some interesting insight after 15 years in the biz.
Making Money Blogging / Making Money Online
- 5 reasons you should bank on the internet to make money online – because who doesn’t like the sound of being their own boss.
- 10 easy ways to monetizing your blog – the basics.
- Review of the Amazon WordPress plugin for quickly building Amazon affiliate sites – a good way to increase Amazon sales on your WordPress blog.
- Details on whether Sponsored Tweets and other ad platforms are banned from Twitter – I haven’t tried any of these, but would be curious if they work.
- Win an iPad and earn money for referring influencers with MyLikes – a quick review of the MyLikes program.
- 5 steps to six figures – the formula for making money online from building a list to launch day of your product. Late addition.
Personal Development / Self Improvement
- Performance vs. fulfillment – which drives you, and how can you find balance.
- Why breaking bad habits just got easier – many people try to skip the “are you ready to break the habit” step which makes the actual breaking of it a problem.
- 5 tips on how to develop an assertive personality – simple ways to expand your comfort zone and gain confidence.
- Staying strong in times of emotional adversity – it’s easy to be strong when things are going well, but what do you do to stay stable when things are going wrong.
- When goals stop working – or how to perservere when your plans fall through.
Photography / Digital Art
- 27 recent photographs from le Flickr pool – an interesting collection of photos.
- A rough week for Guatemala – because the sinkhole looks like something out of a horror movie. Of course, so do these latest photos of the birds caught in the oil spill.
- 15 beautiful iPhoneography examples – simply put, wow – I didn’t know a camera phone could do that.
- Breathtaking closeups of animals – beautiful, but some are not necessarily great for the squeamish.
- 40 beautiful sunset photographs – I give props to people who can take these, because I still haven’t figured it out yet three cameras later.
Search Engines / SEO / Analytics
- How is your SEO strategy working – ways to find out if you are doing the right thing with your search optimization.
- SEO interview with Matt Evans of Monster.com – if SEO were a sport, it would be rugby?
- Make a webpage for each store location – how to utilize local search from the Google guru himself.
- 6 causes and 5 solutions for when your website is ranking for the wrong keywords – advanced tips.
- Why local SEO is harder than you think – in-depth analysis of how local search works in terms how the top site in local search results isn’t always the one that has done proper local search optimization.
Social Media
- 92 essential social media resources – a huge collection of Mashable’s social media articles for business, mobile, and tools.
- An illustrated guide to the science of persuasion and influence – I wasn’t quite sure which category this fit under, but I thought it was a good visual of how things work.
- 7 social media truths you can ignore and still be successful – touches on the elusive ROI and the one rule you MUST follow to be successful.
- 52 questions to ask when hiring a social media company – great way to find out if who you are hiring knows what they are talking about.
- How does social media aid lead generation – for clients and job opportunities.
Tech / Tools / Tips
- 27 useful screen capture tools – for when Print Screen doesn’t cut it anymore.
- Ultimate list of free Android apps – great apps. My tip of the day for Android users who haven’t upgraded to 2.1 – DON’T DO IT.
- Top 10 internet scams you shouldn’t fall for – there were a few that were new to me in this list.
- Top 10 Google products for bloggers – with exception to one or two, if you’re not using them, you should be!
- How to use your iPad for summer travel – apps for planning your vacation on your iPad.
- Twitter gets the you both follow feature – might be interesting!
- Paper.li – read Twitter like a newspaper.
- The new customer service for business – 3 reasons businesses should be using it.
- How to win or lose an argument on Twitter – fighting, 140 characters at a time.
- Ultimate list of 100 Twitter statistics infographics – for Twitter and infographic junkies, this post is heaven.
WordPress
- Top 5 plugins to convert WordPress to a membership site – convert your current blog or a new WordPress site to a membership site.
- Clone Yahoo answers with WordPress – a great interactive addition to any website.
- Beginners guide to BuddyPress – features BuddyPress adds onto the standard WordPress CMS, plugins, and themes..
- Scribe SEO – a review of the WordPress plugin that can act as your blog’s personal SEO guru. If you are a Third Tribe member, look for the Scribe thread – huge savings for the advanced plan!
- Complete to do list and plugins for WordPress site maintenance – if your site isn’t performing as well as you would like, it may be time to check “under the hood” of your WordPress install and fix some problems.
Famous Bloggers – ComLuv Guest Blogging Contest
Update 6/21/2010: My entry for this contest is a post on how to use CommentLuv to promote your articles on HubPages, Squidoo, Bukisa, EzineArticles, GoArticles, and other article networks and directories. A must read for article marketers – learn how to strengthen your article marketing strategy.
Famous Bloggers and ComLuv have teamed up to put together a month long guest blogging contest beginning on June 7th with a total of $2,450 in cash prizes (so far).
The sponsors for this contest are:
$300 Sponsors
- Andy Bailey from The ComLuv Network – creator of the CommentLuv plugin.
- Claims.com – specialists in accidents at work claims.
$150 Sponsors
- Hesham Zebida from Famous Bloggers, your source on how to blog.
- Brian Longest, who offers GoDaddy Coupon FAN3 30% Off and other promos.
$100 Sponsors
- FiddyP, the personal blog of Andy Bailey.
- FiredWok Chinese Takeaway & Delivery’s Chinese Takeaway Lancaster.
- GoodMillwork, a Florida based Millwork Architectural Mouldings producer.
- Andrew Rondeau, creator of Blogging Guide and the Income Blogging Guide Course.
- Marc Duquette of Scribnia, the blogging community.
- The Happy Guy Marketing, professional SEO consultant.
- The Online Recruiters Directory, executive search firms.
- Monster Auto, an auto monsters car blog.
$50 Sponsors
- DiTesco from IBlogZone, home based business resources.
- DennisEdell, Direct Sales Marketing Coach.
- Firas of WP Worx – WordPress Services.
- Kiesha of We Blog Better offering blogging tips & tricks.
- Melinda of Simple Home Organization.
- Dan Keller of TycoonBlogger with tips on how to promote your blog.
- ProjectCenter offering club flyers printing services.
- PPI Claims – payment protection insurance.
- Free Gifts – get free gifts via signing up for other incentives.
- Zoomit Canada, a site of social bookmarking just for Canada.
- Fence Houston, a Houston fence contractor.
- Fence Philadelphia, a Philadelphia fence company.
- Location Villa Costa Brava – lovely holiday destination.
- Buy Amsoil Motor Oil from Lube Oil Sales.
- Olympic EyeWear, retailer of designer sunglasses.
Sponsor benefits include getting a nice amount of backlinks from the following blogs: CommentLuv Community, Social Media Strategy, Income Blogging Guide, Blogging Tips, New Media Bloggers, Web Design, Good Millwork, Sharing Knowledge, Executive Gifts, FiddyP, and yours truly with your choice of anchor text for your links (as demonstrated above).
Being a ComLuv contest sponsor is a small investment for the exceptional link opportunities each sponsor receives not to mention the increased exposure you receive from over 20,000 bloggers who use CommentLuv. If you are interested, contact Hesham and stay tuned for more details about the contest on Monday on Famous Bloggers.
Week in Review
This week, Kikolani featured two great guest posts – 3 steps to find blogging inspiration and 10 things that can hurt your blog. The discussion in both are great, and definitely worth checking out and jumping in the conversation!
Rocket Timelapse
Want to be featured in Fetching Friday posts?
Looking for some link love? Articles featured in the resources come primarily from people I interact with in the comments, and on the social networks. So comment away (DoFollow, CommentLuv, and KeywordLuv enabled), and join me on the networks below, and if your article/photo/video catches my eye, it may appear in following Fetching Friday posts.
The Fetching Friday archives – tons of useful resources on blogging, social networking, and more
Have just opened the links about the Amazon affiliate plug-in and the 20+ pages every blogger needs to have in separate tabs. Thanks in advance, hadn’t seen these before!
.-= New from ashok Should I Go See “The A-Team?” =-.
Yeah, that plugin looks pretty interesting. The pages are definitely something on my to do list – all of mine either need updating or adding.
Actually, I wanted to ask you: Are more static pages a good thing? Bad thing? Depends on the internal linking? I kinda think 20 pages might be a bit much, but I’m also thinking “what if I split up my index by topic.”
.-= New from ashok Abraham Lincoln, “Letter to Ephraim D. and Phoebe Ellsworth” =-.
Huge resources I especially like the Facebook privacy issue – 60% facebook user are satisfied over privacy issues. But some others are already quit this site. Good SMO resources here.
This is amazing Kristi, I loved this post so much.. and thank you for mentioning our contest and sponsors, I think I will fly 🙂
.-= New from Hesham The Art of Organizing a Successful Guest Blogging Contest =-.
You’re welcome… I’m sure this is one of the biggest contests I’ve seen for guest blogging. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
It’s all because of the great Team work! I love it!
And thanks to you Kristi and your post we have got a new sponsor to our contest 🙂
.-= New from Hesham Txt Spk…It’s Gr8! =-.
Thanks for the link luv. Terrance’s A Complete To-Do List & Plugins for WordPress Site Maintenance is just what I need as I do quite alot of maintenance/tweaks on my blog 😉
You’re welcome. I think I need to do some maintenance too. My comments area is running slower than normal today in the admin side.
Thanks Kristi, i will be studying the wordpress database optimization articles in depth since my DB is soo bogged down. And the WP membership plugins article was a great catch also. I have been testing a few and hit some major problems, but maybe some of the others on the list will play nicely with my configuration.
TGIF
.-= New from Marc Al Gore, Former US VP, Announces Separation from Wife Tipper =-.
Plugins can be your best friend or your nemesis. I’m working with one that is driving me insane… but IF it works like it is supposed to, it will be brilliant.
You seriously kick butt. These are amazing recaps. I made sure all my sites and new sites were updated with nofollow and comment love. I’ve got some work to do by going to a few of these links! keep kicking butt
.-= New from Scott Webb from Embryo Embryo’s Womb Business Wrap-Up: Week of May 24 =-.
Thanks. These posts sometimes kick my butt when putting them together, but they’re well worth it when I get great feedback! Thanks. 🙂
What an amazing list Kristi! have bookmarked as always and just spent the last 90 mins clicking links and looking at some of things you have listed.
Thanks for putting it all together
Sarah
.-= New from Sarah Arrow Some people have a solid career path mapped out from day one =-.
Wow… glad I kept you busy today. 🙂 You’re welcome!
75 big marketing ideas for small marketing budgets just kinda jumped out at me, lol.
Also kudos to you, since you added link building, you’ve found some sweet entries!
.-= New from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing The Future of DEDC – Part 3 – A Slight Modification You Might Like Better =-.
It made sense… I had two weeks where I had great SEO and link building articles and had to sort them down to 5. So I just started the extra category because I always find good articles for both topics.
Kristi, thanks so much for the time you put into creating these awesome lists every Friday. You find posts that educate me, and I always find new blogs to follow.
.-= New from John Soares @ Selling Information Products Selling Information Products Weekly Reading =-.
You’re welcome. My theory is that if everyone learns at least one new things from my post, then it is successful. 🙂
I saw that “building links backwards” post earlier this week. Whatever mechanics you use to build links, that philosophy is a great one to keep as a base for link-building.
.-= New from David Leonhardt Pros and cons of country-specific domains =-.
I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to Guest post Kristi! Thank you again! I had fun doing it!.
You’re welcome… your post was unique to the regular content, but still focused on topic, so it was perfect!
I really like the last part, the contest. This is probably first time I see a contest giving away real money. Looking forward in it to read some great content over there.
.-= New from Arafat Hossain Piyada 3 Misconception every beginner blogger should aware of =-.
Yes, Famous Bloggers has held some great guest posting contests in the past, but this one is the biggest!
Hey Kristi,
Another awesome Fetching Friday. Good Stuff. 🙂 !!
Thanks !! Have a great weekend..
~Dev
.-= New from Dev | Technshare Technshare Monthly Report 3: May 2010 =-.
wow, just watched the time lapse rocket launch…reallly really cool 🙂 thanks for the find (of couse all your other links were fantastic too!)
.-= New from William@Create Wealth Teen Money Management =-.
wow again good Resources Kristi, i like all points are good, if you trust any one then no bad to made admin to your facebook page, i made it also the concept is good looks like linkedin you can also made moderator on your group of linkedin profile. thanks for Timelapse Rocket Taking Off video nice one…
one more thing i think today kristi’s Birth day….So Happy Birth day To you…
Wish you many many returns of the day…
.-= New from Govind Singh@SEO Company Advance tools to empower your Internet Marketing services =-.
Thanks for your sharing Kristi! It has been a long time I left blogosphere for my holiday. You have given me a lot of resources to read and keep on the pace in blogosphere. 🙂
A lot of nice posts, I must admit, but that rocket process and then taking off was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen!
.-= New from Mitch How To Tell A Post Is Spam =-.
Another great collection of links, Kristi. I hadn’t heard about the Amazon.com WordPress widget before, which looks really promising.
.-= New from Mark Dykeman Review – Power Tips and Strategies for Mind Mapping Software =-.
Another Fetching Friday success! As always you have enough great content here to keep me busy for hours. And thanks a ton for including my article on habit breaking. You’re the best!
.-= New from Nea | Self Improvement Saga The 4 Best Natural Health Remedies That Keep the Doctor Away =-.
What a week, whew! This is just awesome Kristi and again I am honored to be a part of it. Thanks for the mention and BTW, I hope Hesham contest rocks 🙂
.-= New from DiTesco Mega Contest Of A Whopping $2.850 In Cash =-.
Whoops! That is a pretty exhaustive round-up post. Thanks for giving me something to keep me busy, this weekend. 🙂
.-= New from TechChunks The 4 Worst Forms of SEO Techniques That Will Hurt Your Google Rankings =-.
Wow! What a goodie bag full of treats. Where to begin is the question, ultimately! I’m first going to take a peek at the 20 pages every blogger needs to have. You got a typo on have there, by the way.
I like the writing tips section. My college aged daughter and her friend have been writing for us. There are a few blog entries from you writing section I’ll have them read.
.-= New from Colleen@Kennewick Real Estate Utter Disappointment And The Classiest Acts That Followed, Armando Galarraga, Detroit Tigers, Jim Joyce =-.
A fascinating list of resources, have bookmarked to come back as only just managed to reach the Facebook section, having made many notes from the great Marketing ideas on a small budget. Thanks Kristi
.-= New from Philip Response cached until Mon 7 @ 20:23 GMT (Refreshes in 23.43 Hours) =-.
I like your list. I think I already saw Modern Mami’s list somehow somewhere earlier this week when someone else showed it to me. But then I’ve been over here before too, just never commented before. Also? I’m now subscribed to your Stumbles. Thank you for all this useful info.
.-= New from Margaret (Nanny Goats) Counting Crows (and Dead Celebrities) =-.
I am really concerned about the oil spill in Mexico. I hope that something can really be done to stop it now before it becomes an international crisis. The article, Skinny on the Oil Spill really explained what is really happening in simple terms. I hope that more people would understand and pay attention and act.
I cannot believe it is still going. With all of the technology out there, it seems like someone should have some way of stopping it.
I find that if you start to either be a Guest on a Podcast or even Co-host a Podcast you start to get more and more confortable with your voice. I have been doing over the year, off and on and You wouldn’t believe how much better I am feeling and how I have wanted to start my own podcast but don’t have the equipment for it. I can easily buy an USB Mixer for under $100. I guess it is time to start. This is a great post for those who might want to consider alternatives in blogging!!
.-= New from techlinkblog 5 things to do when You get scammed and burned!! =-.
I love your Friday roundups. I always found atleast a handful of post to read.
Keep up the good work and I’d love to have you guest post someday 🙂
.-= New from benwaynet Follow Friday =-.
Kristi … this one is really long list.
We will need one month to read all these posts …
But yes will try few of them in this weekend. Thanks got you add this list on Friday (good thinking)
ZK just posted Online Profits re-opens and now its FREE
You have some really good resources on your Friday roundups. I have been subscribing since the contest started and am glad I found you. Good luck in the contest.
Stephanie Suesan Smith just posted ComLuv/FamousBloggers Contest Benefits Garden Bloggers