This week has been insanely hectic and very good all at the same time.

Alex and I have been able to celebrate the birthday of Blogussion a bit while trying to prepare for some awesome new products [we will be unveiling very soon] and freelance work. We are officially celebrating during this month and have some very fun things planned

Beyond blogging and freelancing both Alex and I have been gearing up for school finals.  Blogging is great because life throws wonderful opportunities and challenges at each of us daily and we can apply what we learn to our blogs.

My finals this week and next account for 100% of my grades for the entire semester of law school… no stress!  Likewise each post can be worth 100% of the grade for our blog.  If someone stops by and reads a post on our blog for the first time, that one post may be the only chance we have to convince them to stick around.  So write your posts like they are 100% of your blog, because each one is!

Blogussion Weekly Recap

Here’s a quick recap of the articles we wrote this week on Blogussion. If you didn’t get a chance to read them, or want to catch up on the comments that are new, please do.

• Marketing Personalization: It’s Not Just About the Numbers

  We concluded in the comments of this post a few important things about marketing with personalization.

  1. Personalization is a powerful process of referring others and influencing their feelings
  2. Numbers play an important role in marketing as social proof, but are most beneficial when complimented with a personalized promotion
  3. Personalization is most powerful when a relationship is already formed rather than in trying to imitate a relationship

• Let’s Hangout

An excellent guest post by King Sidharth this week, Let’s Hangout focused on turning your blog into a place readers want to actually come and enjoy reading. The concept is.. if you wouldn’t want to hang out there then chances are you wont read there either.

• How to Start a Killer Blog Contest

Starting a contest is pretty hard. There are sponsors to worry about (unless you do it yourself), rules to devise, contestants to encourage, and promotion. This post easily outlines how to have a successful blog contest. For extra ideas check out some of our robust conversations in the comments section. They don’t all agree but you can learn some very valuable things about contests from what our readers are saying!

Blogging Tips From the Community

• Get an Evergreen for Your Blog this Christmas
• 6 Things to Know Before Launching Your Startup
• Some Days Your Kids Make You Proud
• 6 Alternatives to #FollowFriday
• 3 Tips for Better Adsense CTR
• Thank Your Commentators with a Plug-in
• The Art of Juggling a Blog and Job
• The Most Common Computer Threats Explained
• Few Tips to Speed Up Your Blog’s Load Time

We hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and find these articles useful in helping you to become a better person and a better blogger.  We really love and admire all of our readers and want to thank you all again for being apart of this blog. Without you we would be writing to ourselves!

Try to find some time this weekend to relax.  Its a stressful season of the year and its important to take a little time for yourself.  Be sure to take some time for family and friends too! They are so important to everything you do.  Find a way to support them too.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Related posts:

1. Wired Weekend #5: The Best Blogging Tips from Around the Web

2. Wired Weekend #3: The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Web

3. Wired Weekend #1: The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Web

Your wild weekend is upon us and nothing but good times and a little relaxation await you as you sit back and enjoy this round-up of awesome posts.

With posts from around the web and more importantly our community, you are in for a relaxing weekend with some great articles you might have missed.  This week was a blast for us and one of our biggest traffic weeks ever so far so we want to spread the love with links to some very great posts!

Notable Mention of Blogussion

This week we wanted to “spotlight” a blog we love who talked about Blogussion this week!

• Income Diary: 20 Websites That Will Make You a Better Blogger
  

Michael from Income Diary listed us a one of the 20 sites you have to read to become a better blogger. We agree Michael’s site is both interesting and very useful for any blogger looking to learn about earning money online and being a web entrepreneur.   One of my favorite recent articles is “18 Alternative Ways to Use WordPress“

Blogging Tips From the Community

Articles hand picked from our very own community

• Ow, Ow, It’s So Boring Its Hurting My Head

Entertaining and right on target, Nick from Site Sketch offers a wonderful example of writing for your users.  Its definitely a must read for bloggers who are interested in actually keeping their visitors.

• Importance of CommunityParticipation

With a great story and a unique perspective, Brandon Cox teaches a valuable lesson to bloggers who know they want a successful blog and need to build a community.

• I’ll Do Anything For You (except visit your blog)

Not only is this a very funny article, but Gabe Young makes a very good point about networking, inviting offline friends, and being a blogger.

• Blogging Blocks is Giving Away $1K!

Now through the end of November one of our readers, Adam Baird, is giving away $1,000 for tweeting about his contest and new theme club.  Worth checking out and entering to win.

• Creative Thinking: 10 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

David shares what his readers came up with for dramatically increasing your creativity through 10 very simple tips.  See if you can become more creative with David’s suggestions.

• 15 Impressive Design Case Studies

Some beautiful designs, nice analysis and a wonderful site.  Jad does a great job at informing us about the world of design.

Blogging Tips From Twitter

A collection of great blogging tips that we found on Twitter this week.

• How to Run a Successful Series of Articles

@TimothybSmith from Fuel Your Blogging tweeted an awesome post by @Brandonacox about running a successful series of articles.

• A Blog Everyone Should Read

@DoshDosh is not only a twitterer you should follow but a blogger you must read.

Blogussion Weekly Recap

Just in case you missed them, here are the four other posts that we published on Blogussion this week.

• Twitter Apps to Make Blogging Easier

From managing your tweets to your tweeters, there are a number of great apps which do everything you might want to ever do on Twitter.

• Little Known Ways Darren Rowse Makes Money Blogging

Darren Rowse, Problogger, makes money in a variety of ways.  This weeks article highlights the ways you probably don’t know.

• Does Your Posting Frequency Bring the Best Results?

Posting is difficult especially if you are blogging alone, but knowing if it is enough, too much, or just right can be important for your traffic.

• How to Keep an Organized Inbox and Keep Everyone Happy

Organization is a huge key to success.  Making sure you respond properly and speedily to your clients and friends also helps build strong relationships.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

It’s getting close to the end of the week so make sure you end your week right by having a great weekend.  Do something fun and enjoy time with your friends and family.  Take time out of your blogging schedule and step away from your computer.  Trust me it goes a long way at making your blogging even better.

Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t by going to the sidebar and clicking on the beautiful red button titled “Newsletter”. You are going to get some very cool tips and tricks that are exclusive to our group of readers in the newsletter.  Hope you enjoy your weekend and have a very successful time at relaxing!

Related posts:

1. Wired Weekend #2: The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Web

2. Wired Weekend #1: The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Web

3. 8 Blogging Tips for Teaching and Learning Online

Another Friday calls for our second installment of our awesome Wired Weekend series where we bring you our favorite blogging tips from around the web.

The thing that makes this series so great (besides how useful these links are) is that we select articles from our community and feature them in the post. We collect our favorite articles from your web/blogging blog and post them here.

All you need to do is participate in our community throughout the week for us to notice your blog, and if we like your stuff – consider it added to our Wired Weekend series.

Notable Mentions of Blogussion

Check out what blogs are talking about Blogussion this week!

• Creative Bookmarks: Best of the Web October 2009

Tutorial9 featured our article How to prepare a guest post in 5 simple steps in their monthly link roundup post.

• 80+ High Quality And useful Resources – Best of the Web October

Smashing Apps also featured How to prepare a guest post in 5 simple steps in their monthly link roundup post.

• Add a Custom Feedburner Count to your WordPress Blog

Shane Jeffers expands on our tutorial How to display your Twitter and RSS count on your blog with some cool CSS tricks.

• InternetHow’s favorite blog posts of the week

A great roundup post where two of our posts (169 marketing tips and how to connect with your community) were featured.

• Talented Thesis Theme Designer For Hire: Live Portfolio Here Now

A post that showcases the design of Blogussion and other works by myself. Also, this blog is going to put up a list of 100 Reasons Why Blogussion is an Amazingly Successful Site soon. We cannot wait for this list to come out!

Blogging Tips From the Community

Amazing articles hand picked from our community of commentators.

• Personal Branding with Photos and your name

An article that stresses the importance of getting personal with your community and the impacts of not sharing basic info such as your name and photo!

• My blog’s 2 month journey so far

A fun type of post to read, check up on what the Teen Blogger Kid is up to and how his blog is doing after two months. When I read this, it really made me remember starting this blog and how much fun that was!

• 5 Kill WordPress plugins

A list of really great plugins for WordPress. My favorite from the list is called After the Deadline which is the best spell check around right now.

• Top 5 myths about making money blogging

Making money blogging is no easy task for most of us, and with so much advice out there about how to succeed in earning – what’s right and wrong? Well, I’m pretty sure this post is dead on with the myths it exposes.

• Do Unto Others’ Blogs As You Would Have Them Do Unto Yours

A great post that explains how important it is to get active on other peoples blogs. Another idea this post makes me think of is the concept of giving more, and hope to get something in return.

• Want to Become a Problogger? Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

A post that shows how unlikely it will be for your blog to find any success if you do not get out there and try new things.

Blogging Tips From Twitter

A collection of great blogging tips that we found on Twitter this week.

• Let Google Tell You What Topics to Write About

A great article by @Dennisyu where he talks about learning what Google already gives you authority for and maximizing it.

• Market It Write

@Laynefisher tells us 4 valuable lessons she’s learned about writing and marketing from trying to write a novel in a month.

• Five Ways to Immediately Enhance Your Online Productivity

@MattChevy is not only a good friend but also an excellent blogger.  These tips are invaluable for blogging well.

• 8% of the Internet Account for 80% of the Clicks

Tweeted by @JeffWend This article changes the way I look at the internet for sure.

• Falling Off the Shoulders of a Giant

@Simplicitysqd Talks about the changing landscape of the internet and its effect on bloggers.

Blogussion Weekly Recap

Just in case you missed them, here are the four posts that were published into Blogussion this week.

• Five Points to a Successful Blogging Event

A guest post by Arie Rich where she talked about how to plan a working blogging event.

• How Bloggers can prepare for the Future of Journalism

Blogging is changing rapidly every day, and Everett Bogue talks about how you can prepare your blog for these changes.

• The Best users are the Biggest Winners

A post that talks about how important it is to get involved with your readers and how you always get back what you give out!

• How to setup a “Favorite” posts section and bring life back to old posts

A highly detailed tutorial about how to create a “favorite posts” section just like ours and bring traffic back to older posts.

That’ll do it!

I hope you guys enjoyed this roundup! We found a lot of great articles from around our community this week and are really glad we have such intelligent bloggers participating in our community.

Stick around because Monday we will start publishing new, great content! Then, as soon as you know it – another Friday comes by and it’s another Wired Weekend all over again!

Related posts:

1. Wired Weekend #1: The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Web

2. 8 Blogging Tips for Teaching and Learning Online

3. Tips for making a mark in the community with guest posts

We are all about sharing the love with our readers and having fun.  With the new schedule we want to highlight some of our readers work because we believe link love is great for our community.

Feel free to read and enjoy some of these great posts we have found this week and then spread the love with stumbles, tweets, diggs, and links to this article and theirs!

Game Changers

These are posts with extra important ideas in them that will definitely help you go to the next level.

• Seize Your Vision – Its not enough to just do something well, you have to have a vision and then achieve it!
• Six Figure Blogging – Learn what it really takes to make six-figures online.
• Avoiding Failure – Blogging has many challenges, learn how you can’t fail.
  Don’t Back Down – Being inspired is great for blogging, go get inspired to conquer the world!

Great Blogging Tips From Around the Community

Our collection of our favorite posts from around the web. All posts were picked from our Twitter account, and our community. If you want to get listed here, comment around the community and when we are looking for articles for this series – your blog will have a chance of making it on!

• 5 Things Bloggers Should Do on the Weekend – Taking a break is important for bloggers, so make sure you know what to do on the weekend.  It’s also the time to get ahead.
• 169 New Ways to Promote Like a Ninja – Has over 70+ Tweets!
• Write Faster With WordPress Shortcodes – Writing takes time, so learn how to make it faster and easier.
• 10 Steps to Creating a Comfortable Workspace - Loving what you do is important, so make sure you love where you are doing it at. Learn how to make your workspace friendlier to blogging.
• The Birth of the Internet – A quick history of the internet’s life.
• Blog Like You’re Writing for a 14 yr. Old Girl – Blogging for the right audience with the right style is essential, find out how.
• Are You More than a Logo? – Become more than just an image, become a brand.
• 5 Popular Blogging Myths Revealed – There are a lot of things bloggers believe just make sure they are all true.
• You’re the World’s Coolest Blogger, If only… – A very fun blog and extra funny post. Definitely worth a read.
• Connect Better with Your Readers – Valuable resource for connecting with your readers.
• 6 Tips To Writing Effective Article Headlines
  Headlines are what makes or breaks an article. Read 18 more tips here.
• Five Clichés to Create Quick Content
  Not feeling any creativity? It is still possible to conjure up a great article by learning these five quick tips.
• 5 Ways to Get Your Blog Indexed by Google in 24 Hours
  Getting indexed in search engines are crucial for SEO success. Try the suggestions mentioned in this post to speed up the time it takes to get indexed.
• 100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images
  Images are very important to make your post more appealing, but sometimes finding a great image is not an easy task. Hopefully with a list as comprehensive as this, finding an image for your post will become much easier.
• WordPress Custom Fields and Hacks for Bloggers
  Custom fields are a very powerful tool and open up a lot of possibilities as to what kind of information can be shared about a post.
• How To Make Deals With Bigshots in Less Than 10 Minutes
  A post proving that regardless of someone’s social status in the blogosphere, collaborations and friendships are possible.
• 16 Reasons Commenting on your blog sucks
  An amusing post where the author goes over 16 things that piss him off while commenting on other blogs. Do your best to make sure you make your commenting system is flawless!

Mentions Around the Web

We have recently redesigned our blog, and it has gotten some attention from other bloggers. Here are what others are saying about Blogussion and its authors this week.

Reviews

• PropsBlog
• StandOut Blogger
• WordPress Blue

Interviews

• Melvin’s Blog – Help us out, we are in a contest with HowToMakeMyBlog.com so go and vote for us!
• Teenius – An awesome interview with Alex on Simon’s blog over at Teenius.
• KMP Blog – Seth answer’s the question, “How Do I Get Loyal Readers?”

Want to be Listed?

When we form this list, we really dig through our comments and see what kind of articles you, our reader has written. If you want to get your articles and site seen by us, simply comment around the community and leave your blog URL. The plugin, CommentLuv will pick up your latest article, and if we like it enough we will most definitely include it in the next Wired Weekend.

Don’t see the awesome article you wrote? Let us know by contacting us and we’ll see if its worthy of being posted next week.

Related posts:

1. 8 Blogging Tips for Teaching and Learning Online

2. 49 Tips to Become a Better Blogger

3. Tips for making a mark in the community with guest posts

On Sunday, I published a post basically recapping on 20 of my favorite posts on Blogussion. The post received some decent attention, but what’s more important about it is what attention the posts I linked to received.

All I did was take time to round up some older posts on Blogussion and link them in one post. I wrote a post about my older posts that can be easily found by scrolling through the archives here. It was something that was so easy to do, yet had so much positive results!

It had so many benefits, that I want to share what happened specifically and even encourage you do take my advice and do a post like this on your blog. This will only be useful if you have a lot of posts (I’d say somewhere around 100 minimum), so if you just started then this won’t really help right now, but down the lines as your blog grows of course.

The point of that post was to simplify the way older posts can be reached. All of the posts listed in that collection were posts from months back that don’t get as much attention as they probably deserve. By bringing these posts up again, you will have an impact on two different groups in your community.

1. The Impact on the “Newer” Community Members

If you post a recent post about older posts on your blog, the newer community members of your blog will be more likely to read them, and even encourage them to start digging into your blog more and looking for more amazing posts.

If you can hook these newer readers (even first time visitors) to your old posts, think of how more interested they could be in your newer articles! Chances are, you have improved your writing techniques since the older posts you linked to, so that can definitely sway someones opinion on your blog too.

2. The Impact on the “Older” Community Members

Surprisingly enough, that recap post showed some of the longer term viewers of my blog content they’ve never seen before. I received comments from some Blogussion frequents like Simon & Jake who have been reading and commenting here for quite some time now and have missed out on some of the articles listed!

The Exposure Benefits

So it turned out that a few of these articles got more exposure than just being posted on the blog. A few of those articles got some retweets on Twitter, got some stumbles on StumbleUpon, and even a few Delicious Bookmarks.

I can almost guarantee you that none of those posts would have gotten those extra stumble or retweets if I hadn’t brought them back to the top of the blog for a little while. As bad as that sounds, it’s probably true.

My Next Day Traffic Pattern

The post was published late in the day, and didn’t much attention until sometime in the next day. But if I look back in my statistics panel, the day after it was published I had a big increase in traffic.

Here is a little graph of that growth:

What made the jump though? It’s pretty significant in my eyes, because I more than doubled the amount of Unique Visitors to the blog, and increased the number of Pageviews by about 500+.

The spikes in traffic came from, like I said, social media sites like Twitter, StumbleUpon and Delicious. On any normal day at Blogussion, the most recent post will be getting retweeted and stumbled. But when I brought these older posts to the front and the recap post gained popularity, they became more active on social media sites, hence the jump in overall traffic (which is still coming in from the same sources as of this post).

Tips For Building These Lists

To leave you off, I want to share with you a few tips I came up with that you should keep in mind if you choose to create a post like I did.

• Make sure the posts you include are pretty aged

Anyone can click to go to page two on your blog to see a post. Try to include a post from months back, that are buried in your archives.

Look at it this way: your older posts are from the period (the beginning) in which you were most inclined to write top quality content, right? So, with your aged up blog, those “top quality articles,” or “pillar articles” may have gotten lost. Those are the kinds of items you want in your list!

• DON’T choose popular posts

Popular posts are the posts that have had the most exposure on your blog. Chances are you have a list of popular posts somewhere on your blog, like the sidebar for instance. The objective of your post is to show people posts they probably haven’t seen before, so it makes sense not to show them your popular posts!

Even look at my 20 posts, not a single “popular post” up there.

• Choose a post you don’t interlink or even bring up much

Interlinking is just mentioning other posts in a post in your articles. Interlinking and “link loving” yourself are different though, as “loving yourself” is purely dedicated to your past posts.

The posts that have received the less attention out of all your other blog posts are the ones that are ideal for this type of post!

What Are You Going To Do?

Did my little extra traffic jump convince you to do a post like this on your blog? Let me know how you feel about this idea in the comments!

Related posts:

1. 45 Link Building Tips To Help You Promote Your Blog

2. Boost Your SERPs with these Link Building Techniques

3. Monday Morning Link Love – 9th Feburary 2009