Tumblr has only been around for 4 years and considering that WordPress.com has been running for 8 years its a remarkable feet for the blogging platform.

• Tumblr About to Pass WordPress For Blog Hosting – May 11, 2011
• Jetpack: Power Up Your WordPress.org Blog with WordPress.com Features – March 10, 2011
• Facebook is the most used URL in Twitter Profiles – December 5, 2010
• Tutorial: Create your Own Website with Stiqr – May 27, 2010
• Protect your Blog with VaultPress – April 11, 2010

Tumblr Passes WordPress.com in Blogs originally appeared on: Crenk
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It seems as though the Gawker redesign has been hurting their sites more than first thought. Here are the latest numbers out of Gawker. All sites are down within the Gawker Network and in a big way.

There are other issues driving down reported traffic, but there’s no question that their redesign was a huge mistake.

• Tumblr Passes WordPress.com in Blogs – June 17, 2011
• How to Set Goals for your Blog – March 31, 2011
• 50 Ways to Promote Your Blog – February 6, 2011
• Reddit Hits One Billion Pageviews in a Month – February 4, 2011
• Monitor Mobile Traffic in your Site with PercentMobile – November 28, 2010

Gawker Redesign Is Killing Their Traffic originally appeared on: Crenk
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Every blog needs to have goals.  Without goals you are just shooting in the dark, trying to succeed without knowing what success really is.  The problem most bloggers have is that they have very general goals that cannot be quantified.  They say their goals are to make money, to never have to work a 9-5 job again, or to go on a big vacation every year from the money they make on their blog.

But there are 2 problems with that mindset:

1.       Those are not really goals but a result of reaching set goals.

2.       There are no numbers associated with those goals.

In this article I will show you some goals you need to start setting with your blog.  Anything worth doing is worth doing right, and you will never hit a target if you are not aiming at it.  Having no target in your blogging is like using the lottery as a retirement plan.  Yes, some may hit the jackpot, but most will just end up losing money.

So what are some quantitative goals you can start setting?

Remember your goals need to be real numbers– something subjective and not objective.

Your goals can be to reach a certain number of…

1.       RSS feed subscribers

2.       Email subscribers

3.       Twitter followers

4.       Unique visitors in one month

5.       Rank in Google for a given keyword

6.       Indexed backlinks

You will notice that none of these goals have anything to do with money– at least not yet.  You see, when all of our goals have to do with making money we lose focus on how to actually DO it.  But when we focus on getting more email subscribers on our list and getting more targeted traffic to our blog then we will most certainly see a rise in our income levels as well.

One trap bloggers fall into is worrying so much on monetizing their blogs that they forget about the people that will be coming to their sites with the money.  These are the people that will allow you to quite your day job, so your focus needs to be on them.  What content are they looking for?  What questions do they have?  What will make them want to buy a product that you recommend?

Once you have determined what your goals are in real numbers you can set up a game plan.  How can you reach that level of email subscribers?  What do you need to do in order to get more quality backlinks to your site?

Your goals also need to have time frames.

Without a dead line for your goal to be reached you might as well not have a goal at all.  For instance, I can say I want to have 20,000 Twitter followers as my goal.  Then 3 years go by and I am still sitting at 5,000.   There is no urgency to reach that 20,000 goal if I have until the rest of my life to reach it.  The whole point in having goals is to reach them, and to make them a priority.  A dead line will put some fire to your feet to get things done.

You cannot succeed in reaching a goal if you make it impossible to fail.  It’s the chance that you might fail that makes reaching a goal so rewarding.  You may not reach every goal.  You probably won’t.  And if you find you are reaching every goal you set in a short period of time then you are probably not aiming high enough.  Set the bar a little higher and give yourself a challenge.

Set that time frame for those 20,000 followers.  Try to reach that goal in 3 months, 6 months, or a year.  Allow yourself the opportunity for failure, and then work as hard as you can to avoid it.

So to sum it all up:

1.        Set goals with numbers.

2.        Have deadlines with your goals.

3.        Setup yourself for failure.

4.        Will yourself to succeed and avoid that failure.

Guest Post by: Jonathan Souza is owner of CashCoach.net where you can find daily tips on internet marketing, social media, blogging, SEO, and more creative marketing techniques to get more traffic to your website.

• How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level – July 16, 2011
• 50 Ways to Promote Your Blog – February 6, 2011
• Best Blogs of 2010 – August 29, 2010
• WordPress 3.0.1 Released – August 1, 2010
• How to Fix the FeedBurner Counter Problem – July 25, 2010

How to Set Goals for your Blog originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Blog Promotion Basics

1. Make blogging easier and navigational.
2. Have good looking and attractive web design, so that people revisit your blog.
3. Patience is the key.
4. Self Motivation is required.
5. Have controversial articles and interesting discussions.
6. Have positive attitude and don’t frustrate yourself.
7. Be sure on your context, which belong to your niche.
8. Do some thing to your blog everyday, and traffic is seen. The more you do, the more you get.
9. Help out people with blogs similar to your level.
10. Be consistent and scheduled. Most importantly plan you every move.

Content is King

1. Write more and more unique posts.
2. Have more than 150+ resources and articles.
3. Guide people about something, teach them something new.
4. After you article is indexed by search engines, submit it to various article directories like ezinearticles.com
5. Write about Big shots and their controversy.
6. Interview big cool bloggers in your niche, and share about their views and ideas.
7. Look out for popular content that’s gaining traffic, and write about it in a humorous way.
8. Give a press release about unique news, if you have any.
9. Pay others to write good articles for you.
10. Be the first commenter on the posts of popular blogs, but let it be worth.

Viral and Social Networks

1. Create a Fan page on facebook. Also create a facebook app for your blog.
2. Customize the landing page of facebook.
3. Start an open group on Yahoo and invite people or have a widget on your blog.
4. Buy the accounts of popular YouTubers and then add your blog address to the descriptions of their videos.
5. Start Stumbleupon promotional ads campaign
6. Sign up at ping.fm and use twitterfeed.com to auto post your latest blog content to a bunch of social networks.
7. Have a facebook share and retweet button for every other post.
8. Have a squidoo page, as it will get indexed faster in search engines.
9. Include hash(#) tags in your tweets.
10. Twitter – Follow relevant, popular, and interesting people. And some will follow you back.

Bloggers and People

1. Tell you neighbourhood, family and friends about your blog.
2. Search for your niche and answer any questions people have.
3. Submit your content to dofollow social bookmarking sites.
4. Send out a Press release.
5. Signup for various communities and be active in relevant Ning.com communities.
6. Write some content as a linkbait.
7. If your post is relevant to other blogging sites, then try interlinking posts, so as to get deep inbound links.
8. Signup for every other social network you can.
9. Start a podcast and submit it to various podcast directories.
10. Talk to professional bloggers about your post and ask them to review it.

Viral Marketing

1. This one’s my favorite, (Funky) Forward a SMS saying “Forward this mssg to atleast 49 people, to get RC of 49 for full TT instantly” with a link of your blog address. And, its viral.
2. Install All In One SEO Pack for WordPress blogs.
3. Create a theme, that includes a link to your blog in the footer, and then release it for free.
4. If you are a developer, create a wordpress plugin and release it for free with a link to your blog within the admin area.
5. Sponsor some tweets and be an active stumbler to know what stumblers like.
6. Use blog search from Google to find fresh blog posts and then leave comments.
7. Write a guest post for a popular blog. You may not always get published, but when you do you observe a spike in Google analytics.
8. Use Thesis for better optimization and plugins.
9. Join relevant forums, add your blog address to your signature and start posting smartly.
10. Join a social blog network.

• How to Set Goals for your Blog – March 31, 2011
• How to Fix the FeedBurner Counter Problem – July 25, 2010
• 95 percent of Blogs are Abandoned – June 9, 2009
• How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level – July 16, 2011
• Tumblr Passes WordPress.com in Blogs – June 17, 2011

50 Ways to Promote Your Blog originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

I’m pretty sure we can find a blog that was left out in any of these three lists, and some others that did not belong here; but definitely we can find here some of the references in the “blogosphere”.

In the essentials we can find some really cool examples like TechCrunch; but the interesting are the overrated ones, the mentions were for Perez Hilton (totally agree), Fail blog, and a surprisingly Mashable.

Here are the lists:

Best Blogs

• Zenhabits
• PostSecret
• Climate Progress
• HiLobrow
• Hipster Runoff
• Kottke.org
• Cake Wrecks
• The Oatmeal
• S___ My Kids Ruined
• Deadline Hollywood
• Everything Everywhere
• The Sartorialist
• Information Is Beautiful
• The Daily Kitten
• Shorpy
• Apartment Therapy
• Double X
• Strobist
• Roger Ebert’s Journal
• The Awl
• GeekDad
• Engadget
• The Washington Note
• The Consumerist
• Pitchfork

Essential Blogs

• The Daily Wh.at
• TechCrunch
• Gawker
• Politico’s Ben Smith
• Boing Boing

Overrated Blogs

• FAIL Blog
• The Big Lead
• Perez Hilton
• Mashable
• Daily Kos

Can you make your own Top 5?

• How to Set Goals for your Blog – March 31, 2011
• TIME Magazine launch TechLand – November 17, 2009
• 17 New WordPress Themes That Will Rock Your Personal Blog – March 16, 2009
• Twingly: The Blog Search Engine That Is Actually Moving In The Right Direction – December 30, 2008
• Mashable: Non-stop Technology & Web News – September 13, 2008

Best Blogs of 2010 originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

There are three facts existing in today’s 2.0 worls about feeds:

1. FeedBurner represents, even before Google acquired this company, the preferred service used for RSS feeds.
2. All bloggers, web sites and companies, which base most of their strategy in number of visitors; know that having a nice way to show the popularity of your website is a key factor for attracting more loyal visitors, advertisements, etc.
3. FeedBurner values change tremendously every day, if you are not publishing on daily basis.

To fix this problem, we can use this code in functions.php which will use the average readers from the last 7 days, a number more accurate for our RSS feed (download the TXT for functions.php):

function get_average_readers($feed_id,$interval = 7){
	$today = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("now"));
	$ago = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("-".$interval." days"));
	$feed_url="https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=".$feed_id."&dates=".$ago.",".$today;
	$ch = curl_init();
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $feed_url);
	$data = curl_exec($ch);
	curl_close($ch);
	$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
	$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];

	$nb = 0;
	foreach($xml->feed->children() as $circ){
		$nb += $circ['circulation'];
	}

	return round($nb/$interval);
}

Once done, you can call the function wherever you want in your theme files. Pass your Feedburner feed id as a parameter (download the TXT for this example):

<?php
$nb = get_average_readers('catswhocode');
echo "I have ".$nb." RSS readers";
?>

• How to Set Goals for your Blog – March 31, 2011
• 50 Ways to Promote Your Blog – February 6, 2011
• 95 percent of Blogs are Abandoned – June 9, 2009
• How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level – July 16, 2011
• Tiny Tiny RSS: Open Source Google Reader Alternative – July 12, 2011

How to Fix the FeedBurner Counter Problem originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Apple devices come with a native recording device, and even social networkslike Utterli have functioned as a way to capture audio and share it, but none have been as easy as and intuitive as Audio Boo for the iPhone and the iTouch is. The application takes voice recording to a whole new level with a press of a button. Before you know it, you just might start audio recording a whole lot more than you think.

Audio Boo is both a desktop and mobile app. The desktop app allows you to configure your account, asking you where you’d like your “Boo’s” to post. You can choose from a variety of social networks but it’s also stored in the audio stream for others to interact with and comment on.

With a mic you can simply press record and share your message. When done, you stop the recording and then input a message you want attached to the recording, this message is what is seen when the Boo is posted to your accounts. You’re also able to tag it with keywords for easier finding not just for you but for your listening audience.

Audio Boo is free and easy to use for both the iPhone and the iTouch so get the mobile app, configure on the desktop app and get your recordings started.

• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Is Foursquare the Perfect Crime? – February 19, 2010
• Foursquare Fans Check-in via Desktop with FoursquareX – January 17, 2010

Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

More recently Zemanta has made efforts to level the playing field, finally succeeding in opening up it’s engine to include not just articles of recommendation from relevant sites, but to also include recommendations from other bloggers who, perhaps have not hit their stardom online. This gives an great opportunity for a smaller blog site to be listed as related content and drive traffic to the site while at the same time providing a level of authority they would have otherwise not been able to have.

Naturally the fear of diluting the related content option has been expressed, but by not allowing the larger community of bloggers to be listed also kept users from seeing some of the quality content produced on smaller sites, so in my eyes the door swung both ways.  TechCrunch did make a good point in stating that the service will at least ensure that users will keep returning, and in that perhaps lies the real gem of keeping the community together.

• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Personally Publish Self Works with Lulu – January 1, 2010

Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

With content accessible on our mobile, it’s become more common for us to be productive with our mobile devices to get more work done. Cell phones and other mobile devices have become the digital leashes that collar us to work, but at the same time it also keeps us connected to life’s information flow. As we become a more connected community via social media tools, it’s always useful to hear how others have made it work for them.

Recently I was stuck on a prolonged trip where I could have done one of two things, sit and just let time pass, or find an effective way to keep what I do going. I opted for the latter and as a writer for various websites across the web, I found the magic combination that keeps what I do going even if I’m not on my laptop or desktop.

For starters I have a iPhone and I’ve set up my apps in such a way that I can now more easily stream line the writing process using apps that I’ve linked together because of how they work together. If there’s a Blackberry alternative out there, I’d love to hear how you keep your brand running even if you’re on the go.

Documents2: Is the app I use to write my article. I use this article specifically because when I write I can back up automatically to my Google Docs and send a copy via email if I choose, all without leaving the app. This makes backing up my work easy.

Safari: I use Safari to quickly grab a creative commons photo from Flickr or any other photo site. I save the photo to the device and make sure that I get all relevant information for attribution purposes.

PS Mobile: This free Photoshop tool is great for quick edits to photos like resizing or cropping on the go. I don’t look for this tool to do anything more than I know it’s capable of and save the photo and move on.

WordPress: Using the WordPress app I bring in my copy, insert photos, include attribution, and tag and label my post accordingly. With a press of the button my articles are posted and I move on to my next task.

The above process may seem like it take a lot of moving around from one app to another, and I admit at first it did take more time than I would have liked. But after making this part of your routine, you become faster at it, and grouping icons by purpose instead of type, like most people do, you can easily access your tools to ensure that your posts are published.

Photo Credit Christopher Chan

• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Linkedin iPhone Update Offers More Functionality – December 29, 2009
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009

Publish Your Content On Your Mobile originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Tracking mentions online is a huge market that has yet to turn any profit. Still, there are a lot of sites out there that track mentions on Twitter, Facebook, various social sites, and a few blog sites as well. Knowing what trending topics are hot and when your name or brand is mentioned is important and becomes  a focal point of tracking your web presence.

Regator is both a web app and a mobile app that allows you to keep up with what is happening in the blogosphere without missing a beat. The unique addition of the mobile app ensures that you never miss a mention. They pay app ($1.99) is a functional addition to any mobile media person’s toolbox.

Regator does little to stop you from jumping right in. Search for keywords, browse the web from within Regator, search real time trends, and even set up a blog monitor for specific names and keywords for daily reports when those words are mentioned.

I also found the ability to favorite posts, entire blogs, and/or topics to be useful for when I needed to come back and read up more in depth later.

Regator definitely explores millions of posts thousands of the best sites out there. I found it an interesting tool for media, business, writing, and news professionals. But just about anyone can find a great use to keep up on their specific keyword choices or trending topics.

• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009

Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

The plug-in has a new version, 0.4, that appeared a few days back and it already includes compatibility with the latest WordPress version.

So what exactly a blog antivirus can do? You may ask. Well, this plug-in can help you out on monitoring possible platform vulnerabilities, virus injections, malicious links inserted, etc. Includes also features like email notifications and whitelisting.

The installation process it’s the same as every WordPress plug-in:

1.Download AntiVirus plugin
2.Unzip the archive
3.Upload the folder antivirus into ./wp-content/plugins/
4.Go to tab Plugins
5.Activate AntiVirus
6.Edit settings
7.Ready

WordPress users and webmasters always find the need to keep a good eye on the deployed platform in case any vulnerability appears and, if that happens, just pray for a quick hotfix. It’s nice to have a quick option that can help you be more proactive about the health of your deployments.

• Tumblr Passes WordPress.com in Blogs – June 17, 2011
• SimpleReach Slide: WordPress Simple Related Post Plugin – July 24, 2011
• How to Add Google +1 Button to Your Website – June 6, 2011
• Windows Phone 7 Theme for Your WordPress Blog – May 31, 2011
• Tumblr About to Pass WordPress For Blog Hosting – May 11, 2011

WordPress Antivirus Plug-in originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Richard Jalichandra, chief executive of Technorati, said that at any given time there are 7 million to 10 million active blogs on the Internet, but it’s probably between 50,000 and 100,000 blogs that are generating most of the page views.

But why is this happening? Why people just suddenly looses motivation to write or share experiences, information, articles, etc? The article also remarks that people usually confuse the idea of blogging as a fast way to financial independence and rapidly find themselves discouraged.

But, besides the possible financial disappointment, is it twitter related to this? In a small way, I think.

Over an year ago (maybe more) when I started to hear about Twitter I found this short comic (from Gapingvoid), metioned also on an old post of mine about Twitter:

For some cases, I’m sure this is a very realistic comic. After all, Twitter it is a way of micro blogging, share information and (current) experiences. And it is easier and simpler to keep updated your Twitter account instead of your blog. It is the same? Absolutely not.

Blogging is so much richer, states as a permanent document (Twitter also does, but not so friendly to review them), or even as your historical experience in a given subject. It’s all about sharing: information, opinions, expertiece, experiences, etc etc.

My take? Never stop blogging.

• How to Set Goals for your Blog – March 31, 2011
• 50 Ways to Promote Your Blog – February 6, 2011
• How to Fix the FeedBurner Counter Problem – July 25, 2010
• Building your Own Arcade Cabinet (shared) – June 14, 2009
• Women in the Video Game Industry – October 25, 2011

95 percent of Blogs are Abandoned originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook