Stephan Miller
Building Websites, Traffic, and Income
A List of Top Blog Lists
I cover a lot of topics and read a lot of blogs. Up until recently, I had them all in one folder in my feed reader. Then I broke them up into folders. That took some thought and until then, I really had no idea what all my interests are. After that two hour organizing session, a lot of things became more clearer. I saw what I liked listed by topic. After that, I was able to create a few filters for each of my blogs. Now, if I’m in commenting mode, I just go down the river of articles in each filter. I have only headlines showing and open all the links in my browser. It is training me on writing better headlines and opening the link in the browser means I don’t have to retype everything when I go to comment.
7 Very Cool Free Desktop Feed Readers
I have been so wrapped up lately trying to replace desktop software with web apps that I haven’t looked into desktop feed readers for a long time. I used Firefox live marks until I realized that 700 feeds will slow down the browsing experience.
After that I went to Google Reader and have kept my feeds there for a while. I maxed out Google Reader with Monkeyscripts to the point it runs real lyslow and then I went to the mobile version in the sidebar of Flock.
Feed Consolidation for Niche Blogs
One of the first things you want to do when starting a new blog is find the neighborhoods that you will hang out in when you are working on your blog. These will be the blogs you comment on, get news from and reference when writing the posts on your own blog.
Google Reader
I am a Google Reader junkie. I use it in the browser, in the sidebar, in iGoogle, and on the phone when I am bored in waiting rooms. It is fast and a very useful tool. And I found it a necessity to use someone else’s processing power after the feeds in my OPML file grew to the size of over 700 individual feeds. Live bookmarks just isn’t going to do the job. And this was just my reading list for this blog and Digital Products Review.
A Weekend of Work
This weekend I got off my butt and went down a list of things I wanted to get done.
- I built a list of blogs using the CommentLuv plugin over at my site Digital Product Review. I am just getting the final tweaks on the theme done and am ready to start getting a little more traffic. I figured this list would bring some. It only has 100 blogs on it now, but I have about 250 more links to go through, so look for updates. A large percentage of these blogs have an Entrecard widget, a second reason to check this list out.
Tools for Commenting
There are a few things you have to do if you want to get the word out about your blog. Joining blogging social networks helps. Writing good posts help. But you will probably go unnoticed by other bloggers if you are not commenting on their blogs.
Oh, great. Another rehashed post on commenting.
Not!
I am not going to tell you how to comment or what to comment on. I am going to show you a few of the techniques I have used to spread my comments around as far as I have and to have the posts come to you.
The Ultimate DoFollow Blog List
I figured I had to go over the top with this one. Not quite sure if I have. You tell me.
I have been using Fast Blog Finder to find dofollow blog posts for me. It helps and then it doesn’t. I don’t spam. I like getting beneficial links back to my site. I use tools like this because they simplify the process. But sometimes the posts are a little bit old. And I am not quite sure of the etiquette involved. Is an older post OK to comment on? I could see refering to it from a blog post. But after a post has 20 comments, how much do you really add to the conversation if it has ended? Read more... (469 words, 3 images, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)