Owner: Blogging Sueblimely URL:http://www.sueblimely.com Join Date: Tue, 01 May 2007 18:16:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Helping Bloggers connect - tools, resources, widgets, help, SEO, social networking, tutorials and examples Site statistics:Click here
New widget site - Fancy Gems 2007-08-26 08:25:00 Bloggers tend to either love 'em or hate 'em but if you are in the first group here is a new site for you. Fancy
Gems contains quite a few new unusual fun widget
s such as a lava lamp, fancy text and banner generators.Not really having use for more widgets I thought I would give one of the more frivolous items a go, The Secret Message Scratcher.RiddleWhat does man love more than life?Fear more than death or mortal strife?What do the poor have, what the rich require,And what contented men desire?What does the miser spend, the spendthrift save,And all men carry to their graves?AnswerGet Your Own Scratch Widgets sueblimely alexa
SSS - Silly Sunday 16 2007-09-01 21:33:00 Wanted for questioning by the police - the person who stole John Cows brand new bike.If anyone sees a brand new bike with a classy green lock and jumpy brakes please inform John Cow immediately. (well wouldn't you be jumpy if you had been kidnapped, especially so soon after being adopted by a bovine?) No doubt the lock is broken too but it is no wonder; such forced separation is traumatic.John may have to forgo his milk and request donations towards purchasing a new means of mooving around his field.I am sure any information on the bikes whereabouts will be applauded - I can just imagine the cow clap now.Details of this heinous crime can be read hereDancing for Rank I have recently been considering purchasing this T shirt, not necessarily to gain rank butI thought it may help me meet bloggers in real life.I will know who they are as they will be the ones whose expressions show they understand the meaning of the T Shirt's message.Now back to the serious business of blogging. Coming up Read more:Silly
, Sunday
Nice Matters Award - with thanks 2007-09-01 18:28:00 I have received this delightful award from Kuanyin on "The Art of Living and Dying' Thank you so much - ;A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results” Ella Wheeler WilcoxThe Nice Matters awarded to those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!I am delighted to be able to pass the award on to the following people Kuanyin - I know you have got one already but here is one for your Who's Yo Mama blog because you fit all the criteria very nicely.Saboma of Maryannaville for your honesty and kindness.Sharon - Ghosts in the Machine Thank you for all the encouragement you have given to me with your comments.Colin - Life - for not letting up on the quest to find Madeleine and his help on Blogging to Fame Fans. Award
sueblimely alexa
Blog Day 2007 2007-08-30 13:40:00 This project provided a refreshing and relaxing break for me, as I allowed myself to browse freely rather than concentrate purely on the type of sites I would normally visit for research purposes. It was hard to restrict my list to five sites that interested me but here they are - not in any particular order;The Happiness Project - by Gretchen Rubin, who writes about her quest to be happier by a year of "test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study" she could find including those of Aristotle, St. Therese,Martin Seligman and Oprah.Tech Burrow by Hisham Hamdan; a young man from Lebanon who was recently introduced to blogging by a teacher. He writes about technology and shows much promise.Psych Matters: Reflections of a Psychology Tutor by Charmayne Paul. It was Charmayne's 'About Me' description that prompted me to go on and read her blog. urban nomad, scholar, merry prankster.Life Clever shares tips that "make life a little easier" - design advice, productivity
Use of Forums for blogging - Gain Readers & Learn 2007-08-29 04:10:00 I am going to talk today about the value for bloggers of actively participating in forums. I can hear you groaning now as you think that there is enough to do, peripheral to your actual blogging, without adding another element to your work load. Do not dismiss the idea out of hand though, remember moderation is the key. If you take time out to work out which blogging promotion tools and resources are the most useful to you and ditch the rest, then adding a forum or two to your 'to do' list will not be quite so bad. You may have noticed that I have been going through a culling process myself; my sidebar is shorter and the page is loading faster. Why use Forums
?Participating in forums is a valuable means of getting you and your blog known as well as a great source of information, tips and help; whatever your blog topic.Promoting yourself and your blog: Show your site off - there are often sub forum topics specifically for posting your site details.Find people interested in y
BlogRush in the Fold 2007-09-22 05:34:00 When I first looked at BlogRush I was reasonably interested in what it had to offer. When I discovered that it involved adding a widget to my page my reaction was "No way am I going to join up, after just culling a host of other widgets from my site." BlogRush kept appearing in posts I was reading and I succumbed to the temptation. I just had to find out for myself what it was all about, widget and all.What is BlogRushA blog syndication network designed to bring more readers to your blog.. The widget that you are required to put on your site will display headlines coming from the blogs on the network. You can of course see an example of this in my sidebar (if you scroll down)How BlogRush Works Your own post headlines appear on other blogs in proportion to the amount of page views you have had and the number of bloggers you have referred. For example if you have 500 page views a day (I wish) your own headlines will be shown on other member blogs 500 times. If you refer another blog to
How to make your blog speed along 2007-09-20 04:11:00 I have talked before of reducing sidebar clutter and limiting the amount of widgets. plugins, scripts and images to speed up your page loading time.You may have done all this and still find your page slower than a wet week and are wondering why.What slows down page loading times and what to do about it?ImagesReduce your image sizes - in dimension as well as in file size. Reduce the number of colors in graphics. Use dimensions with your images e.g. the image above uses<img src="http://..... /turtle.jpg" />.I used one image rather than three here as this worked out as a smaller file size.Use formatted text rather than text within images. Use color, font type and size and hover effects for effect. Use the background image property rather than including the image by inserting it in the page.e.g. instead of using <div><img src="http://sueblimelybt.blogspot.com// http://..... /turtle.jpg" </div> use one of the following methods: Use stylesheet background images classes Read more:along
All you need to know about styling lists 2007-09-15 21:05:00 Lists are used extensively within blogs, particularly in the sidebar; for example in blog rolls, category and archive lists. Lists within posts are an excellent way to improve readability and to highlight areas. Your blog software automatically creates some of these lists for you and your template styles them so you may not have had to worry about their formatting.However If you want to change the type of list or its styling you may find this of use: Types of Lists Unordered List (Bulleted List)This is more commonly known as a bulleted list - a list of items, each one preceded by a "bullet". The html default style will appear with a disc bullet as follows: If your lists look different to this then they have had CSS class attributes added to them in your template/theme stylesheet.<ul><li>First item</li><li>Second Item</li><li>Third Item </li></ul>First itemSecond ItemThird Item An unordered list is not to be confused with an unruly list as
Blog Design - 25 KISS techniques 2007-09-12 20:24:00 I have had blog design on my mind for a few days in lieu of having the time to actually design something for my impending move to Wordpress. I came up with some wild, wonderful and complicated ideas only to end up reminding myself of the KISS principle - Keep it Simple Sue. I brought myself back to earth and reverted back to more basic web design principles and the particular needs of a blog site.These concepts apply whether you are designing a blog from scratch or trying to choose a pre-made template.Keep it Scope Sensitive1. Consider your blog's goals and target audience, what is its purpose and focus.2. A personal blog tends to have more design leeway than a business blog which often needs to follow certain professional conventions. 3. Consider the age and sex and interests of your audience whichcan influence the whole tone of your page with regard to color, image and layout . Keep it Styled SimplyReading on the web is not particularly easy on the eyes. A design take account of sty Read more:Blog Design
SSS 17 - Subscribe to this RSS Button 2007-09-08 14:56:00 It's Sueblimely Silly Sunday time again.Have you noticed that Subscribe
to Feed buttons are becoming larger and larger on many blogs. I know the theory is that if you place the button in a prominent position towards the top of your sidebar then you are likely to get more subscribers. Now it looks as if that the trend is to try to coax readers to subscribe before even reading the blog; by having the button so large they distract you from the content. (you guessed, I am exaggerating but they are getting bigger).I remember a time not so long ago when the buttons were like this: As I do like to keep up with modern trends in the blogging world I thought I would join in. Do you think it large enough?PS - The subscribe button in the sidebar will be removed later this week - it does not lead anywhere either. I did not want to take advantage of you by having a working big Subscribe button. humor, SSS, sueblimely alexa
Featured Widget - Digg 2007-09-08 03:29:00 This weeks widget comes from from Digg
. As you can see, from the image below, the widget is configurable. I have chosen to show posts dugg by my digg friends but you can also choose posts by subject, digg member or website. If you choose a particular user, you then have the option to display news that they have either dugg, commented on, submitted or their most popular. The display is customizable by choosing from one of 5 templates or choosing your own custom colors. You are able to specify a height and width, whether to show digg count or not and you can display titles only or a title with description. I chose to customize my widget to match my blog colors; using Color Cop to pick out the colors I wanted. This gave me the color numbers to enter into the widget's template color customization fields. (There is a clear tutorial on how to use the color cop tool on the Color Cop website.) Widgets alexa Read more:Featured
Stalk Sphinn for SEO tips 2007-09-08 01:05:00 Sphinn is a social news & networking site for the search engine industry - “where people can meet, talk, discuss and network”.Even if your blog does not cover this topic it is useful to keep up with news and articles on how to promote your site, social network and gain rank with the lovely Google. (I think it advisable to suck up to Google -pretty please, Google, could I have a page rank of at least 4). Each social networking site tends to have its own distinct language. You bump on Bumpzee, Digg on Digg, Add as a Contact on MyBlogLog., Fame on Blogging to Fame. On Sphinn you STALK and those who favor you are your stalkers. Once you have pressed the Sphinn button to express your admiration for a post you have Sphunn it. These are the main categories covered by Sphinn. GoogleYahooMicrosoftSearch MarketingSocial MediaOnline MarketingSearchingI found some interesting reading on there with Facebook being a current 'Hot Topic' I never thought I would see the day when I would say "I a Read more:SEO
Social News Aggregation - Australia 2007-09-05 20:11:00 If you are an Aussie or just interested in reading some 'true blue' content from this amazingly wonderful country please take a look at the following article from Meg of Dipping into the BlogpondSocial
News Aggregation in Australia
The very talented Meg also helped to set up Australian websites - dLook (an online business directory) and Obits (which lists funeral notices and a directory of funeral industry businesses). Australia, Social-Networking alexa
Free Links - Million Pixel website 2007-09-05 19:27:00 Come and join me for some free link love and add an image link to the Million Pixelwebsite
. At the time of writing this there were 191,500 pixels taken with 808,500 still available. You can still find a spot in a prominent position and you could even snuggle up next to me:The site is being run by neo2012 whose sites include Monetize Your Website or Blog and Find-Great-Gifts.Com You can also find him on MyBlogLog Link-Love alexa
Blogger virus attack - a storm is brewing. 2007-09-04 21:03:00 Just a quick post to alert you to something I just discovered. I think this deserves to be No 35 in my list of why I am moving away from Blogger
:Google's Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs. The posts attempt to lure readers to what is purported to be a legitimate link or a YouTube video but instead leads to booby-trapped downloads that could infect a Windows PC. The virus
, named the Storm Worm or Virus is also hitting inboxes worldwide. I have had quite a few of these nasty emails myself.A Google spokesperson said: "The blog posts are likely from users' whose machines have been compromised by a virus.... Among the other recipients of spam e-mails generated by the virus are users' mail2blogger accounts, which allow them to update their blogs via e-mail,"Please go and read more on the BBC News site, where I originally read about this. A text box on the right hand side of the article gives some examples of the kind of text being u Read more:attack
Competition - win a free portrait 2007-09-03 23:45:00 Kim of Laketrees and PoeARTica, a talented artist, poet and blogger extraordinaire is running an interesting competition. Apart from the prize, the competition helps us get to know her better; by encouraging us to explore her blog more closely.Get this widget!By correctly answering 30 questions, one posted each day in September, you will be in the running to win one of Kim's delightful graphite portraits, which she will draw from an A4 photo of you.Examples of some of Kim's recent work can be seen on her site hereYou can find details of the competition here.The first 5 questions have already been posed but it is not too late to catch up: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4 ,Question 5. competition sueblimely alexa
Why use Wordpress? 34 Reasons 2007-09-03 14:55:00 The move of this blog to my own domain is nigh. At the same time I am moving over to Wordpress
. Although blogspot Blogger has served me well, there are a few aspects that that frustrate me. I enjoyed the challenge of finding ways round problems but because of the time involved the novelty of this has worn off. Some of these issues have been solved with the new Blogger but it is not possible to use this version on your own server.Please keep in mind that these are my reasons for moving to Wordpress on my own domain, based on my own requirements. I would not consider moving to the online Wordpress as Blogger allows much more flexibility and the new version offers an easy to use interface for many customizations and add ins.. Before considering a move of this kind it is a good idea to think about why you need to. Consider:What features are not supported by your current blogging platform that you really need?Can these features be added to your current blog with plug-ins, workarounds or 3r Read more:Reasons
More Ways to Make Fellow Bloggers Hate You 2007-09-28 11:38:00 Mihaela Lica at The Dog Yard has tagged me to continue a tongue in cheek thread she has started "10 Ways to Make Your Fellow Bloggers Hate You" . I will not duplicate her list as you may be interested in following the thread via the others she tagged. Starting from number 11:Another 10 Ways to Make your Fellow Bloggers Hate You or to misquote Elizabeth Barrett Browning "How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways." Place so many ads at the top of your site so as to cause RSI (Repetitive Scrolling Injury) in the readers who are interested in your content. Incorporate dominant ads within your posts and write really short posts. Force your visitors to read your ads; they are more interesting than the post. Having a subscribe to this blog pop up appear when the site loads.Make your page load extremely slowly by filling it with unnecessary widgets and subscription buttons and crash browsers with scripts that do not work. Have very little original content but copy from other sites, blogs
Blog Against Abuse 2007-09-26 22:54:00 I did not know where to begin when being faced with the task of writing about abuse for the BlogCatalog Blog Against
Abuse Challenge Sadly this is a massive topic. I decided to emphasize the sheer size of the problems and issues involved relating to Human Rights Violations.Reading this you may think the problems are too massive to solve/they are not in my country/I can't do anything to help solve this. They are all too easy to brush aside because they are too painful to really think about or day to day matters command our time and attention. I urge you to take some time to think, to read blogs taking part in this challenge and consider in what ways you can make a contribution to help solve the problem. A small donation by all who read the blogs today would add up to a massive amount. For my part if one person donates, or if one person reads something here today that makes them volunteer their time and efforts then it will be worthwhile.Refugees Refugees and displaced people face food
How to make friends and Digg people 2007-09-25 23:11:00 Digg has launched new features based on social networking and allowing users to establish an identity. Do I hear you say "Not more Social Networking sites to visit"! That was my original reaction and, judging by many of the comments I have read online, many feel the same way. Not being one to be influenced by negative opinions without looking at the other side of the story I gave the matter some thought. Digg Social NetworkingBefore I discuss my own observations here are some of the main new Digg Features:Enhanced User Profiles allowing users to add their personal interests, photos, biographical information, and links if any to their blogs, web pages or social network profiles.History of comments you have made on stories on your profile page. The Friends feature shows the recent the activity of your friends - new Diggs or comments.Shouts. This feature allows you to send quick notes or stories to particular Digg friends or groups of friends. These are posted to their profile Read more:Digg
, people
Free Burma 2007-10-03 12:46:00 The Free-Burma
.org protest site for bloggers was launched by two German college students. They got the idea from a multi-lingual Wiki page that was set up last month as a forum to allow participants around the world to brainstorm ideas on how to show support for the protesters in Burma.The internet has been banned in Burma. Bloggers who recorded and posted about the regin's bloody crackdown on protest are in hiding - Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma There has been a flood of reports of alleged brutal killings, disappearances and arrests as the military in Myanmar stamped out the anti-government protests of the last week.At least 1,000 people have been arrested in Yangon alone, the majority of them monks. Numerous key figures in the National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, and other activists are among those arrested. Here are a few resources to help you find out more about the situation in Burma.The Free Burma site itself
Bloggers take action 4th October 2007-10-02 22:49:00 International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. We are planning to refrain from posting our normal posts on 4th October
. Instead we will be following this criteria:To take part in this action for a Free Burma! 1. Publish a posting (Bulletin Board, Forum, Blog, Social Network, Static Website…) on the 4th of October with the header: “Free Burma!” 2. Tag it if you can with “Free Burma” 3. Choose a graffic from the Free Burma Graffics page using the code provided for you to copy and paste or from the Free Burma Flickr Group pages. 4. Link to www.free-burma.org where your readers will find information about the campaign, about Burma itself and a participant list which you can join. Even if you're a webmaster of a bulletin board or social network you will find a special Group List
Definition of Page Rank 2007-10-02 19:08:00 Darren's video in my recent post Page Rank
- forget it but still increase traffic got my mind ticking away about why I blog and what I wish to achieve from it. Having a high page rank is appealing from the perspective of affirmation, stroking my ego and assuring me that I am not talking to myself. However, although I blog about bloggingI have no aspirations of, or delusions about, becoming another Darren - a one stop source for all your blogging needs. I just hope that the perspective and observations I bring to the subject are of interest to more than a handful of people. I am not aiming at readers whose primary aim is to make blogging their life's work, a major source of income or draw in clients for their main business. There are many blogs available that will help them do this. I do want to help those who blog to fulfill other more personal needs.This is what Page Rank means to me. I am totally in agreement with Darren about the need, above all else, for quality content..Passion Read more:Definition
Problogger $54,000 prize giveaway 2007-10-02 10:18:00 PROBLOGGER$54,000 5th Birthday GiveawayI seem to be mentioning PROBLOGGER frequently lately, probably because I have been revisiting the site more regularly again. To celebrate the site's 5th birthday, Problogger has teamed together with sponsors to give away more than 100 prize
s worth over $54,000 USD in a whole series of give-away challenges. You will need to be a frequent visitor to the site for the duration of the competition; if you don't want to miss out on. The first chance to win (entry for this is just by leaving a specified comment) will end 4 hours from now via The First Giveaway Begins! The next two chances will published within 21 hours. (it was 3 in 24 hours but I have only just found out about this via a facebook notification).The prize, which can be seen here The $54,000 ProBlogger Giveaway, range from the "fun and slightly bizarre - to the the very useful! "Good luck to those who enter. Competition alexa
Award is Totally Fabulous 2007-09-29 23:11:00 Many thanks to Colin of Life for gracing me with this award. I am honored. The award came Colin's way via His Most Serene Highness Lord Adrian the Perplexed of Melbury Bumpton . (I just had to mention that wonderful name) of First Time Dad fame because of their participation in the Magical Flying Carpet Ride I find it so difficult to decide who to give this award to as it applies to so many people. Therefore I am going to stick a pin in my list of those who have commented regularly on my blog as I value them all.Captain Lifecruiser Lifecruiser Pearl - Fresh Perspectives Franco - eBusiness And BloggingKuanyin - Who's Yo Mama andMihaela Lica aka Mig of The Dog Yard - I did not choose you by sticking a pin in you. No conditions come with this award. I do not need a link back, I do not require you to pass it on if you don't want to. I do not even ask you to do a post about it or display it on your site.. Please just accept it as thanks for contributing to this blog, being my blogging Read more:Award
Page Rank - forget it but still increase traffic 2007-09-29 18:59:00 Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger has created a video that highlights the most important and fundamental elements in achieving a high page rank. This has nothing to do with Search Engine Optimization techniques (SEO), linkbaiting, submitting your blog to directories or social networks but all to do with the quality of your content. Darren believes that people are becoming obsessed with page rank and place too much emphasis on it. If you instead concentrate on creating the quality content Google is looking for then page rank will look after itself.I find it reassuring to be reminded of this. I imagine the Googlebot to be a busy little creature and I much prefer to leave him to do his work, rather than bombarding him with techniques imploring him to come and explore my blog. SEO is one aspect of blogging that I find a little tedious and do not talk about much here. Anyway there are zillions of blogs out there dealing with the subject so I will leave happily that up to them.I will not just re Read more:Page Rank
, traffic
, increase traffic
Youlicit - Relevant Content for Blog Research 2007-10-15 21:53:00 I have been spending some time lately trying out Youlicit, which I can only describe as a kind of cross between a search engine, Stumbleupon and del.icious. The aim is to provide you with relevant content by remembering the type of site/posts you visit and suggesting similar content. So far I have been impressed by the accuracy of the results.Youlicit says that its underlying premise is that of reducing information overload by using collaborative filtering. Anything that can recude overload, to whatever extent, gets a thumbs up in my book.FeaturesRemembering your interest areas and recommending similar sites/posts. Adding sites you recommend via Firefox addins.Adding sites via links on the Youlicit site itself.Finding sites similar to those you have bookmarked via the Youlicit site and directly from Firefox. Adding contacts who have similar browsing interestsImporting of del.icio.us bookmarks and digg favoritesRSS feeds for several aspects of Youlicit’s service, including your r Read more:Relevant
, Content
, Research
Blog Action Day - The Environment 2007-10-14 15:21:00 "We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady.So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone,and see that we have harmed the living Earthand need to make our peace with Gaia."James Lovelock: The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 yearsEffects of global warming include rising sea levels, glacier retreat, and altered patterns of agriculture, extreme weather events, an expansion of tropical diseases, and drastic economic impact. The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, In September this year the Arctic's North-West Passage - a sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans opened up for the first time since records began. The UN is calling 2007 a global climate change "mega disaster". Scientist: Global greenhouse gas emissions already beyond 'worst-case' scenario Heavy water restrictions are already in place her Read more:Action
, Environment
All you wish you did not have to know about Domain Names 2007-10-13 18:49:00 If you are thinking of moving from a web based blog hosting service, such as blogspot or Wordpress, to your own hosting service then you will need a domain name, which is your unique address on the internet. When I move this blog over my domain name will be sueblimely.com.A domain name is made up of two parts, the unique name you choose, made up of letters and or numbers (in my case sueblimely) and a top level domain (TLD) - eg com, net, au, ca. A complete list of TLD's can be found on Wikipedia. (As from next year you will be able to get a .me TLD when Montenegro's domain name becomes available - imagine the rush to get that suffix e.g. buy.me, love.me, bookmark.me...)Think carefully about your domain name considering these points: If your hosted blog name is already well known then think about reusing this. If you want a new name, try to choose one that is easy to remember and easy to spell. Shorter names are generally better and less prone to spelling errors. Remember that your Read more:Names
, Domain Names
Recommend Site To A Friend
