BlogCatalog

Site Of The Day:

So, in case you've been living in a cave in Turkmenistan for the past day and haven't heard the news, BlogCatalog has been named the Site of the Day by Top Site Tally. In recognition of this award, we have prepared a few words:

BlogCatalog: We'd just like to say thank you first and foremost to our families for standing behind us no matter what, and...

Kanye: BlogCatalog, I'm really happy for ya and I'm a let ya finish, but Facebook has one of the best websites of all time.

BlogCatalog: Uh, thanks to Top Site Tally and all of our amazing members.

Changes To Our Site:

There are many changes underway at BlogCatalog. First, you may have noticed the new holiday theme on the home page courtesy of Oscar (TN9Design). That's his little holiday gift to all of you out there in cyberspace. He is also working on a host of other design changes that will will make navigating the site easier and will make the ads on our site less intrusive. Overall, the changes are estimated to increase the sites level of usability by over 400% (these figures are based on a quite biased survey of approximately 2 BlogCatalog employees).

Dan (thegoodknife) has also been working like a mad man in order to improve the user experience on BlogCatalog. His changes may not be quite as apparent to the everyday user as the upcoming design changes, but they are vital to improving the BlogCatalog experience. You see when BogCatalog was acquired, there were tons of bugs in the source code. Since Dan got his hands on the site, he has been meticulously combing through that code, making updates, removing the bugs and moving it all over to a new framework. So, now the BC source code is comprised entirely of Dan's original code. This means that all the code is now super clean and streamlined. For the users that means things should run a bit faster and account updates should happen a bit quicker too. If-- as they say--time is money, then Dan just saved you about $ .35 while you read this post. Tell him thank you the next time you bump into him. He'll like that!

Popular Blogging Discussions: Find out more about one of these topics or share a piece of sage advice.

Is Wordpress Better Than Blogger?

Complying With FTC Disclosure Rules

How to Generate More Blog Traffic

I have to say it always makes my day when I see @jaybetee or @BlogCatalog pop up on someone's #FollowFriday list on Twitter. Being the skeptic that I am, however, I have to wonder if making it on to various #FollowFriday lists has any real impact when it comes to gaining more Twitter followers. Except for when I first started using Twitter, I don't think I have ever added anyone from a #FollowFriday list.

So I am wondering am I the weird one? Do you regularly start following people your Twitter contacts recommend on their #FollowFriday lists? Or, is #FollowFriday more of an effective way of letting people you already follow know that you dig their tweets? Or, a little of both? I'd love to hear what the bloggers think about #FollowFriday and how you use personally utilize this hash tag.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a photo blog is worth a few million at the very least. Photo blogs are widely used by amateur and professional photographers, travel bloggers, artists and many others as an easy way to share their work with millions of viewers worldwide. Attractive, contemporary and often minimalistic blog themes are used to frame the shots and make them stand out on the page.

The BlogCatalog directory is full of stunningly beautiful photo blogs. To show you what we mean, we had Austin compile a list of a few favorites. Check out his favs below and hop over to http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/art/photography/ for a list of all the photo blogs on BlogCatalog.

 

The Estetic of Senses:A photoblog by two bloggers from Belgium. Featuring a collection of regularly updated personal photography of nature, architecture, artistic nudes, and other scenes from the Belgium area.
 

Scrolling through the BC Blog Directory the other day, I happened to stumble across the graffiti blogs section. Until that point, I didn't even know there was a graffiti blog section in the directory. Being quite curious about the section I managed to overlook until this point, I went in and discovered many cool blogs showcasing examples of vibrant street art from around the world. I recruited some other members of the BC team to help me take a look through all of the graffiti blogs and put together a sampling of a few that we think are worth sharing. The blogs below highlight the work of street artists in the United States, Peru, Germany, Belgium, England, France, and Israel to name a few. Take a look and let us know what you think.

ArsTreets: A gallery of the art in the Parisian streets..."The Outside Culture, The Magic EveryDayLife, Your Museum..."

Graffiti on Trains: This site gives you what it promises...graffiti on trains. A collection of photos from around Belgium.

West German Street Art: Germans can create some wicked street art. This site is a great photo chronicle of the art created there.

Street Art In the City of Tel Aviv: A poignant blend of street art photographs and poetry.

Jason Rubacky: It's all about graffiti here. A collection of videos and photos showing pieces from across the globe as well as reviews of painting supplies.

The Crooked: A site that share lots of street art images and aims to start some discussions on the current state of things as they begin the journey to being a legitimate street art institution. 

Manchester Graffiti: A mix of graffiti, hip hop and culture from Manchester, UK.

Vandalog: Everything street art, and nothing not street art. Vandalog has interviews with street artists and gallery owners, info on print releases, reviews of exhibitions, and much more.

Mutando Urbano: A blog from Peru about urban art and artistic expressions in the streets.

On November 17, 13,200 bloggers from across the globe participated in BloggersUnite: Fight For Preemies. Their posts about the rising rates of premature births raised the awareness of approximately 3 million readers. Through a mix of sobering facts, statistics and moving personal accounts, these bloggers poignantly illustrated the impact premature births have on both the individuals involved and on our society as a whole.

Thanks to all who were involved, the Fight For Preemies ranked as the top event on BloggersUnite before and during the event with a total of 495 registered participants (approximately 3.8% of total participants). The March of Dimes saw the percentage of blog posts in which they were mentioned double on the event date, and Fight For Preemies was mentioned nearly 5 times as much on November 17th as it was in the month leading up to the event.

BlogCatalog and BloggersUnite want to thank each and every blogger who participated in this event. Thank you for taking the time to make a difference. Thank you for sharing your stories; they moved us more than you can imagine. Below are a few of the posts BloggersUnite and The March of Dimes felt deserved recognition for truly capturing the spirit of this event:

Love My Lily: "Having a preemie means having to say goodbye to a lot of things that most first time parents take for granted..." http://lovemylily.blogspot.com/2009/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

Baby Tea Leaves: "I learned something that day. I learned that even though we forget so much, that some memories will never ever lessen. They will remain as vivid as the day we experience them." http://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/11/post-that-almost-wasnt.html

Sophie's Journey: "Nonetheless, every night we were there, we noticed another couple who spent hours and hours sitting next to their baby's crib, reading to him from Harry Potter. They never missed a night. Their dedication was incredible." http://sophiejourney.blogspot.com/2009/11/prematurity-awareness-month.html

Mothers Who Write: "He knows her better than I do. I have a baby too ticklish to touch and Ididn’t even know. I feel like crying, but don’t want to cry here. “Take me back,” I say. “I’m ready to go.” http://motherswhowrite.blogspot.com/2009/11/fight-for-preemies.html

Life And Times of the McTripletts: "I could give you some statistics about how many babies are born early each year, how much it costs families and businesses, what percentage of babies die from complications, the average time spent in the hospital, the percentages of these babies who have life-long complications... but to ME - those are just numbers. The statistic "1 in 8 babies is born prematurely" wouldn't have ever meant anything to me... unless that 1 baby was mine." http://themctriplets.blogspot.com/2009/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

Sayer's Journey: "Aidan spent 66 days in the NICU. Aidan lived and thrived in the NICU thanks to many doctors, nurses, specialists and research done to help babies born too soon. Aidan came home a month before he was even supposed to be born." http://sayersjourney.blogspot.com/2009/11/prematurity-awareness-day.html

Our Stork Got Lost: "I definitely wasn’t prepared for the feelings of guilt, sadness, jealousy, anger, confusion, and fear that I would feel just because Max and Wes were born prematurely." http://ourstorkgotlost.com/2009/11/blogging-for-preemies-a-mommys-point-of-view

As of December 1, 2009, new FTC guidelines went into effect requiring bloggers to disclose any time they are compensated for endorsing or reviewing products or services. Bloggers should now be disclosing any time they receive payment, free products or services, or perks in return for a post on their blogs. Also any relationship with a company or organization that can be viewed as creating a conflict of interest should be disclosed. It is also a good idea to add disclosures to any past posts that still receive a decent amount of traffic.

The main focus for the blogger should be transparency. Tom Chernaik, one of the developers of http://CMP.ly (Comply), has had several discussions directly with the FTC. In a phone conversation yesterday, Tom told me that "what the FTC has said is that they're not looking to go after bloggers. What they want is for people to comply and be transparent and to be open about what they're doing." He stated that most of the burden will fall on advertisers. They will be responsible for "lead[ing] the discussion about disclosure...and having a monitoring plan in place to monitor those disclosures as they occur."

This does not mean that bloggers are without responsibility. Although the FTC may focus mainly on advertisers, bloggers are still required to include disclosures on their blogs and can be fined if they don't include them. Because many bloggers are confused about what they will be required to include on their blogs, CMP.ly is making it easy for bloggers to include disclosures. By creating a free account at CMP.ly you will have access to six standard disclosures and a custom disclosure that can be pasted into your post. If you feel like taking a more relaxed approach to the whole disclosure issue, humorous illustrated disclosures can be found at Louis Gray's blog. Whatever path you take, just be transparent and you should be OK.

This week, @TonyBerkman and @AngieAlaniz are out of the office and that means Rocky and Ariela, the office pugs, are gone too. While the office isn't quite the same without our trusty pugs--it is quieter and smells a whole lot better--it does give us a chance to appreciate a new addition to the BlogCatalog office.

Tom Wilkinfish is a little fish in a little bowl, and he is often overlooked by everyone other than his friend and caretaker, @ithinkdancan. Until now, that is. Tom now has his own twitter page so that everyone around the world can keep up to date with everything that happens in his little 6x4 inch world. It's pretty riveting stuff that you will not want to miss...if you're into swimming and breakfast pellets. You can follow Tom at http://twitter.com/tomwilkinfish and we'll be sure to check in with him now and again and keep you up to date on the word from the tank.

Twenty-one years after writing her award-winning book The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum--a.k.a the "Diva of Desserts"--shares more amazing cake recipes in her new book Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Featuring detailed directions and instructional photographs that guide readers step-by-step through her recipes, the book makes it easy for any home baker to create Rose's mouth watering cakes. The book features butter and oil cakes, fluted-pan cakes, baby cakes, sponge cakes, and the bravest bakers can even attempt one of her wedding cakes!

In the spirit of the Julie and Julia project, Rose's fans are baking every one of the cakes in Rose's Heavenly Cakes and blogging about it at heavenlycakeplace.blogspot.com. Rose also has her own blog, Real Baking with Rose, where she shares her thoughts about baking, lists her upcoming appearances and has a complete list of all of her popular cookbooks.

Learn a little bit about baking a great cake by watching Rose's video:

Click here for a larger version of the video.

Writing in an office environment can be difficult. Distractions are everywhere. I hear coworkers talking about the details of Tiger Woods' alleged affair and I get distracted. They ask me a question about updating a profile on BlogCatalog and I get distracted. The UPS man shows up, asks for a signature and I get distracted. Even on the days when I find myself alone in the office, I still get pulled off track by the various tones emanating from my phone and computer alerting me to a new email, a new text message or an incoming call.

So, how does one eliminate all of the outside distracters and get back to the simple task of putting words down on a page? This is the question I asked myself at the beginning of the week, and after a few days I have come up with three tips. I have no illusions that these are ground breaking pieces of advice. In fact, writers have probably seen them expressed one way or another a thousand times. Still, even when one knows something already, it is nice to have a periodic reminder.

1. Schedule time to write when you know you will not be distracted. I usually get to the office between 8:30 am and 9:00 am in the morning. By that time, most of my coworkers are here too and so I come into an environment where there is already a lot of activity. By arriving between 6:30 am and 7:00 am, I give myself anywhere form an hour and a half to two hours of alone time when I can concentrate on my writing and nothing else.

2. Turn off your phone and any alert systems you have on your computer. I put my phone on silent, shut down my email program and turn off all my social media applications. I turn everything off completely because even if I don’t check my email or pick up the phone to see who is calling, just hearing the beep, buzz or ring can distract me from my thoughts. And, when you get knocked out of your writing groove, it can sometimes be hard to get it back.

3. Use a basic writing program. The first part of writing is getting your thoughts out on the page. So, pick a program that allows you to do just that without being distracted by spell-check and formatting errors; these can be fixed later.

This week I have been using Ommwriter, a new application for Macs developed by Herraitz Soto & Co. Recently launched in beta form, Ommwriter is "a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper." Forget formatting, inline spell checking, hundreds of font choices. You'll find none of that here. What you will find is a clean, simple application that allows you to focus on just one thing--putting your words onto the page. Ommwriter does have a few options. You can choose one of three backgrounds--a clean white page, a clean grey page or a minimalistic grey and white snow scene. There are also three font choices--serif, sans serif and script--and three font sizes. There are seven meditative soundtracks and seven different keyboard sounds from which to choose; or you can turn the sounds off and type in silence. For those of you looking for a meditative space in which to write all you really need is Ommwriter and pair of headphones and you’re there. For more information about the Ommwriter application you can go to: http://www.ommwriter.com/

Ommwriter (click the link to watch the full-size video on Vimeo.)

As Thanksgiving approaches and we begin to focus our attention on buying and preparing dish after dish for our holiday feasts, it becomes more apparent than ever that there are many people in our communities that will be going without a Thanksgiving meal this year. In fact, many of these people often go without meals for themselves and their children and some struggle daily with hunger.

Food banks and nonprofit organizations all across the world do their best to help those in need, but it seems no matter how much they do there is always more that can be done. This year has been especially tough for these organizations. As millions of people worldwide feel the impacts of the current financial crisis, less and less people are in a position to give time, food or money.

That is why BloggersUnite has asked bloggers to join the Brown Bag Project. The aim of the project is to get bloggers to help in the fight against hunger. They have asked that today, 11/21/09, bloggers pack a bag full of food and deliver it to a hungry family, deliver food to a local food bank, donate money to a nonprofit fighting hunger, or anything else that will help feed those that are hungry.

The BlogCatalog team got in on the action a day early. Yesterday, we packed up 6 boxes full of food and delivered directly to families in need. We know our efforts are just a proverbial drop in the bucket, but seeing the smiles on the faces of those we helped and hearing their gratitude lets us know that we made a difference in their lives. And, that's what this project is about--taking just a little time out of your schedule to do something that will not only keep someone for being hungry tonight, but also make a positive impact on someone's life.

We want to thank St. Josephs's Downtown Church and Country Home Learning Center for helping us locate families in need. Anyone in the San Antonio area who would like to help someone in need today can donate a frozen turkey to the SA Food Bank's Holiday Turkey Round-Up until 7 pm today. Look for the refrigerated trucks at these SSFCU locations:

• 281 North Service Center
• The Rim Service Center
• 410/Rigsby Service Center
• SW Military Service Center

Links for maps to the donation centers can be found on the SA Food bank website.