The following 10 blogs are my favorite top 10. They each offer a unique view on the web and provide an excellent read each and every time I visit them. If these blogs are not currently in your bookmark list you should add them.

In no particular order;

MezzoBlue

Recent Posts:

Mediatyping
Producing
Upcoming

Figby

Recent posts:

Spammers lose a few more IQ points
Redesign (or repair) in progress
SXSW 2007

ProBlogger

Recent Posts:

The Greatest Blogging Skill
How to Breathe Life Back into Your Blog
Blog Promotion - Reader Submitted Tips

SlashDot

Recent Posts:

Australian WiMax Pioneer Calls It a Disaster
Quantum Computing Not an Imminent Threat To Public Encryption
ISPs Losing Interest In Citywide Wireless Coverage

Ryan Stewart

Recent Posts:

Google Using Flex in Docs and Spreadsheets
Best MIX Writeup Ever
MapQuest Gets Traffic Information

JustAddWater

Recent Posts:

Where to find a giant, affordable touch screen?
The Design of Internal Enterprise Applications
Internal Capgemini Scrum Presentation

Search Engine Journal

Recent Posts:

Learning About Locations through Wikinear
.info Domains are Not Worthless!
Skype & Importance of Phone Numbers in a Meta Description

Entrepreneurs Journey

Recent Posts:How To Motivate Affiliates To Promote For You
Sometimes You Have To Reinvent The Wheel
The Power of Purpose

Franto

Recent Posts:

Real Time Ray Tracing in ActionScript 3
Adobe Max 2008 - attendee goals and days
Adobe technology platform ActionScript reference for RIA development

TheOpenSourcery

Recent Posts:

Web Books
Kindle What ?
The Flash Advantage

Could it be true that there is no escape from Facebook? Many blogger say its so.

You might want to take a closer look at how Facebook is playing the data collection game with YOUR information.

Recommended Reading:

Facebook’s Misrepresentation of Beacon’s Threat to Privacy: Tracking users who opt out or are not logged in.

“They pale, however, in comparison to the third case, where Facebook was receiving data about my online habits while I was not logged in, and was doing so silently, without even alerting me to the cross-site communication.”

Bye, bye Facebook?!

“Today I had a look at a rather unknown feature of Facebook (see below) more than once. It’s probably just a matter of time before I delete all information and hit that link. Though will my account information, friends’ data, and mini feed information be deleted from Facebook’s servers? It’s called Deactivate, not Delete, right?”

Facebook Says:

A Statement from Facebook

“When a Facebook user takes a Beacon-enabled action on a participating site, information is sent to Facebook in order for Facebook to operate Beacon technologically. If a Facebook user clicks “No, thanks” on the partner site notification, Facebook does not use the data and deletes it from its servers. Separately, before Facebook can determine whether the user is logged in, some data may be transferred from the participating site to Facebook. In those cases, Facebook does not associate the information with any individual user account, and deletes the data as well”

Now take a look at an investigation done on Facebook’s own Terms Of Service

Did you catch this line from the Facebook Privacy policy?

“Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services…”

I must say after reading the above information I am strongly considering “deactivating” my account and removing ALL information.

A great way to help build backlinks for your site is through blog commenting. Now this is not as simple as some people may think. There is defiantly a right way and a wrong way to go about this.

Examples of Deniable Comments:

cheap hotels said:
Nice site.

hot deals said:
I like your site visit mine! http://www.foo.com/

Examples of Acceptable Comments:

John Doe said:
Excellent points. I must say that I too have experienced the same thing and have found it most frustrating. I couldn’t help but laugh when I read this line of your post “most idiots believe”. I’m not sure if I agree completely with “the solution is simple” due to other factors at work. However I do wonder your thoughts on academic relations.

Jane Doe said:
Thank you for the great information on teething! My baby has begun teething last week and it is so hard to know your child is in pain and not be able to do much to help. The frozen jelly ring seems to be helping a ton, thank you for that. What do you think about the various teething gels? Are they really safe?

I’m sure you can see the obvious differences. When submitting comments to other blogs think about your own site, what types of comments would you allow?

There is a HUGE difference between contributing to a blog by posting a relevant comment and being rewarded with a backlink and spamming! Don’t be a spammer!

DO List

• DO read the entire post.
• DO reference the post.
• DO compliment the author.
• DO ask a question.
• DO use proper spelling and grammar.

DO NOT List

• DO NOT post only one line.
• DO NOT post a bunch of links.
• DO NOT waste your time and the blog owners.
• DO NOT use smilies.
• DO NOT be a spammer.

Blog commenting can be rewarding for both the blog author and the comment poster. There are simple rules of respect that should be followed. Keep it clean, keep it relevant, contribute something useful and respect the blog and the blog owner.

Looking to make some real cash with AdSense and WordPress? Well now you can using this easy to follow 10 step strategy. Thousands of webmasters are making cold hard cash online everyday using only WordPress and AdSense, so why aren’t you?

There is no good excuse as we are giving away our new eBook absolutely FREE!

stcfx-10-steps-to-blog-cash.zip

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool useful for saving or retaining updated information on websites that you frequently visit or websites that are your favorite. RSS utilizes an XML code which scans continuously the content or subject matter of a certain website in search for new informations then transmits the information updates by way of feeding the information to subscribers.

RSS feeds are generally being utilized in blogs or news sites, though any website wanting to broadcast and publish information can use them. Once new information is sent, it will contain a headline, a little bit of text, and either a rundown or a brief review of the news or story. A link is needed be clicked upon to read further.

So as to accept RSS feeds, a feed reader is needed, called an aggregator.  Aggregators are widely and freely available online, and all that is needed is a bit of searching, you will be able to locate a certain interface that best interest you. What’s more, RSS feeds can likewise be read and retrieved from cell phones and on PDAs.
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Many studies have proven that radio is a good medium for product advertisements.  People listen to the radio for entertainment, usually to listen to the latest music or to their favorite radio program.  In between the program, advertisements on products and services are being played.

For many years, this has been the trend in advertising.  But now that the radio medium is almost behind the audio-visual medium, the TV, and the Internet, other marketing strategies have to be employed to continue the benefits of advertising through audio.

It is then that the benefits of using music on websites were discovered.  Before, music on the Internet was just available in downloadable forms as mp3.  Even through hosting downloadable music on their servers, companies were able to get much traffic on their sites.  And everyone engaged in Internet marketing knows that website traffic plays a big role in boosting product and service sales.
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Today anyone who has writing ability or is dreaming to be a writer has written a blog in the net. There are blog soft wares that are simple and easy to use and a technically inclined and challenged individuals can easily acquire a blog online.

For some individuals, blogs are their projects of every day living, as they talk about their daily episodes as well as make tribute to friends and family. Furthermore, blogs assume a profound meaning written to compose and assemble political statements, endorse a product, supply information on research, and even offer tutorials. Any subject that are of your interests, you can be sure that someone has written a blog about it.

Blogs are now being written by musicians, politicians, sports figures, novelists, newscasters as well as other known figures. It is this blog fever that has raised controversy. The fact that anyone can compose and regarding any subject matter under the sun, complaints about certain write-ups are an issue. In a lot of blogs, names are being mentioned; do bear in mind that although you are entitled to write anything that interests you in a blog, you have to be very careful and take in a lot of responsibility. Do not make any statements which can become controversial; or else, be very prepared.

Why a Blog?

1.    For personal acquaintances, relationships and hobby. A person can write a blog about his daily activities, what’s going on with his life as his way of telling his family and friends the things that goes on in his life. Likewise, one may also write a blog just so he can express what he feels about himself, or about a certain subject matter that is of interest to him.

2.    Topical. Some blogs are committed to a precise topic, like computer hardware or politics. These are frequently read like magazines.

3.    For marketing.  Corporations are too, into blogging; when well written and implemented, this kind of blog can be a powerful instrument for business communications, forming eagerness and anticipation regarding their products and services offered, or used as tool within the company, keeping employees well informed about company issues and news.

Why someone else’s software?

A lot of Web designer and creators will laugh at the belief and idea of utilizing the software of someone else. This is can be correct especially when each software greatly differs from the particular requirements that a client may have. Yet on the other hand, when it refers to a Weblog software, there is no reason for apprehension in the use of a package that is pre-written, as most packages were developed through years of study; not just knocked together over a couple of days.

In addition, one may study its feature set. For a developer, it would take a lot of time and effort to write and compose from “nothing at all” every single feature in the Weblog software packages of today. For most people, a blog is there for the main reason that chooses to publish or make known your literature and texts on the Web, so you want to spend your time more on writing than coding.

Hosted Services

If one wishes to start broadcasting on the Web, yet does not have web hosting, one can consider looking into a hosted service, which includes Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal, and more.

These services are operated or handled for an individual, so there is no need to concern one about technical upkeep of one’s Weblog; instead, one can concentrate on his blog’s appearance and content. In just minutes, after signing for an account, one can readily start his own blog.  Many such services are offered free, such as blogger.  TypePad charges a minimal amount for monthly service fee.

Self-Hosted

When one has Web hosting on hand, or is eager to buy hosting, in which one feesl that the advantage will prevail over the problems of keeping up your own blog connection and installation, then you may want to take into account a package that is self-hosted, which includes Movable Type, Textpattern and WordPress.

Other hosting companies did construct the process of installation easier, permitting installation with just a click from a control panel that is browser-based. It is important that you check with a hosting company so you can view if this function is offered. Similar to hosted services, some self hosted packages are made available either for free or for a certain fee which is dependent on the type of package that you choose as well as the basis why you are using it.

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months.  Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings.  Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media.  Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites.  Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.
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Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet.  Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it.  Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.
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Blogs have increased popularity over this past months.  Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings.  Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media.  Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites.  Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

Many people spend time reading blogs.  People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews.  With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs.  In some cases, this is more dependable.  While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product.  With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name.  You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites.  This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site.  Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues.

This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design.  You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role.  While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service.

You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner.  You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.

In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own.  However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page.  Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page.

It can also add to the design of your blog.  You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.

Add a favicon

Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool?  Many people do.  These favicons add a professional look to the URL.  These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins.  You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines.  Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back.  You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.