http://www.socialblogroll.com/rss/ social blog roll http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/09/four-books-that-you-should-re-read/ (With thanks, once again, to Victoria for suggesting this topic as a “Weekend Reader’s Blog.”)  Do you have something you want me address?  Something you wish to know?  Is there a creative situation you’d like to put me in – only to find out how I “write myself out of it?”  Please put a suggestion ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/11/im-not-happy/ It’s true.  I am NOT happy today.  I’m not particurly sad, nor am I depressed.  I’m just having an unhappy day.  Both of my girls are home, we had a great family weekend, but I got very little sleep last night (a not unusual event for me) and I couldn’t turn my brain off.  Does ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/13/the-day-the-music-died-–-the-day-a-generation-grew-up/ …then this morning I went to the bookstore and bought The Catcher in the Rye. I’m sure the large part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil. I went to the building. It’s called the Dakota. I stayed there until he ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/15/the-first-time-i-almost-got-expelled-from-college-part-ii/ For those who missed yesterday’s blog, I’m afraid that there’s too much to catch you up on…this won’t make much sense to you without the first part of the story.  For everyone else, this STILL might not make much sense to you:  it was a different time and it was a different world. When we left ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/18/ebay-ebay-now-my-boycott-starts-today/ Today, Rita’s Digest begins its first in what will most definitely be a series.  It will not be a daily series.  It will not be the “theme” of Rita’s Digest.  I may even go weeks without even returning to it.  But, I WILL return.  Because something is very, very wrong over at eBay. Since eBay recently ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/16/why-i-have-never-tasted-coffee/ This week’s “Weekend Reader’s Choice” suggestion came from my good friend and author, WRITER DAD.  Anybody wishing to leave a “Weekend Choice” Suggestion is welcome to do so on any day during the week in the “Comments” Section. According to scientists everywhere, we are all born with five senses:  touch, smell, taste, hearing and seeing.  Many ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/14/the-first-time-i-almost-got-expelled-from-college/ Rita Digest Note:  This is a two-part story, as you can probably tell from the title.  This time the SECOND part will be told.  Many thanks to my “personal blender” for reminding me of this story.  You know who you are.   J I started college in 1977 at the age of 16.  No “genius genes.”  I ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/20/ritas-internet-connection-is-down/ Rita will be back (hopefully) by later today. Her Internet connection is down. Please feel free to leave comments. Thank You! http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/19/touch-base-tuesday/ A Rita’s Digest Note:  “Wordless Wednesday” is a wonderful idea, particularly for those with a good camera, who can take a good photo.  Guess what?  Yes, you guessed.  Since I started blogging, I have written at the pace of approximately 6 blogs a week…which is fine for me, as I love to write.  But with ...] http://bloggrrl.com/2008/08/12/how-a-hard-hit-on-the-head-can-help-any-man/ Note:  Rated “R” Once upon a time, there was a jungle.  This wasn’t any ordinary jungle, though.  Farm animals and ferocious animals all got along very well.  And all of the animals tried to help each other out. This is the story of Mr. Mouse.  Mr. and Mrs. Mouse had just become the proud parents of a ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/355921282/ Daniweb.com has published a short piece on what Google’s Website Optimizer can do for your website or blog. Tom Leung, product manager for Google Website Optimizer, says it’s not always easy to know what drives traffic without a tool like Website Optimizer to help. “In the old days, you would just make your] changes and hope ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/359956856/ AhmedF of Tech Soapbox gives us 10 HTML tips that will help improve speed and efficiency. I say building in the sense that you could either be a theme designer creating a blog template, or you could be tweaking your existing blog for speed. For instance, Ahmed recommends you put in your content first, then other ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/356452344/ When I log into my WordPress site I usually skip scrolling down the dashboard, quickly pressing either “write” or “manage”.  Last night was different, as I was enjoying my hazelnut flavored java I scrolled down to see what was down below.  I seldom do that, so I thought, hey… let’s see what’s down there.  Interesting. One of ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/357431677/ Distinguished blogger, William Patry, has decided to stop blogging.  Every post, all but his farewell, is now a stark reminder of how he was brought to that decision.  Understanding the post comments, it would evidence the legacy that this blogger has impressed on his readers.  I know that this post is now starting to feel ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/364063773/   Blog publishers and owners are getting very excited about the new Disqus version 2.0.  What’s that?  A brief intro on what Disqus is? OK: Disqus, pronounced “discuss”, is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. The Disqus comment system can be plugged into any website, blog, or application. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/360401678/ Now that’s news! Wordpress.com announced that they have extended their support hours from 9AM to 4PM PDT to 24-hours weekdays… to 24/7! That is one huge commitment that this team has put on and I think deserves a standing ovation. Kudos to you guys! When you send a support message to wordpress.com you’re assured there’s ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/362080880/ This is my first theme recommendation, and a WordPress theme just recently released by Smashing Magazine and Design Disease.  I sure hope the author submits it to the WordPress Theme Directory soon because I think this is a great find.  I found it really cool that the author has also included the PhotoShop Document (PSD) ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/367357898/ Barely two-months after the major version 2.6 release WordPress kept it’s promise of releasing 2.6.1 with all the 60-fixes proudly done.  It’s very encouraging to see the developers working on bug reports.  Such an ill-feel if you get stuck on bugs until the next major release.  I think this is the value of a thriving ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/369999431/ The first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media… that’s Blog World and new media expo 2008.  I think this is the first trade show that’s actually dedicated to the blogosphere and new media.  If you’re just starting to blog, are already blogging, ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bloggingpro/PfjF/~3/368210848/ Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder announced impressive milestones and growth figures marking the state of WordPress during WordCamp 2008.  His keynote speech emphasized the dominating strength of WordPress.org and WordPress.com over its closest rival TypePad. In the USA alone, it was noted that there are over 20.9 million WordPress.com unique visitors vs. TypePad.com’s 7.2 million uniques. ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370237266/ Continuing the day’s trend, I attended another landing page-related session to round out Day Two of SES San Jose. The Expert Roundtable brought together four ‘knights’ of landing page optimization, armed with their tips and tricks to achieving the ‘holy grail’ of pay per click ads: Landing Page Utopia. Moderator Ron Belanger, Vice President of Agency ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370482646/ Another fine day of blogging is under the collective belt of the TopRank team. Google Dance offered a very nice distraction last night and you can see by a quick search on Flickr the fun that was had. Thank you Google. Here’s a wrap up of posts from the TopRank Blogging team for day three of ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370301252/ It’s hump day during SES San Jose week and it reminds us there are many avenues for interacting with marketing conferences. It’s one thing to focus on programming events like our last few tipsters, it’s another thing to have spent numerous conference hours in the shoes of an attendee, speaker and conference programmer. David ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370347992/ “Quality over quantity” applies to almost everything we encounter, from the foods we eat to the people we interact with. It certainly applies to pay-per-click ads, in which the quality of your campaigns, from keywords to ads to landing pages, takes precedence over the quantity of money you bid. Your keyword quality scores can be ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370347991/ Social media marketing is fast emerging as a must-have in search strategies. In this session, industry experts Vanina Delobelle, Global Product Director for Monster, Erik Qualman from Search Engine Watch and Global VP of EF Education, along with Brnet Csutoras, Online Marketing Consultant offered some tips to successfully integrate social media into your search marketing ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370460537/ The SEO Rehab & Intervention was a great session oh how we are all addicted to something in our industry. Granted it was a bit of an un-structed session, but that’s what made it entertaining. The discussion flowed from chocolate cake to Twitter and SEO. Here are a few good tips: Spend your time on what ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370261268/ Google may be the giant in the search industry, but they may have to much data to get you want you want to find. A previous session talked about semantic search and how it’s being worked on, but if you can’t wait, vertical search is something you can use today. Philip James from Snooth ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370334706/ The famous eye tracking heat maps are just the start of understanding search behavior. What about what happens before they get to your site? Or while they are on your site? Search behavior is something a site needs to understand to get more users to their site. Here are a few of the ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370462921/ Entering the realm of social media can be a bit like trying to enter an exclusive club. There are barriers to entry, codes of conduct, and unwelcome outsiders are quickly identified and ostracized. Yet, like an exclusive club, the benefits of membership can be great. Marketers looking to benefit from social media would do well ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/370462950/ News search engines offer a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics or to help with a public relations launch. In this session, industry experts Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, Lisa Buyer, President & CEO of The Buyer Group and Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder, SEO-PR look at how to ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/07/10/what-the-hell-can-social-media-do-for-me/ This Featured Guest Post is by Mark Hayward of MyTropicalEscape.com. Why am I asking - because your clients want to know! How do I know - because I am them. image source: azrainman I am a small business owner in the purest sense of the term, in fact, it’s just my wife and I ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/05/30/blogging-the-status-quo/ Social Desire will be featuring Guest Posts for the next few weeks. Today’s Featured Guest Post is by Chris Estes. He is a Frequent blogster at SEO by Chris When I set out to help Shana I couldn’t come up with a topic. Topic block or writers block plagues lots ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/08/07/stumbleupon-is-finally-removing-the-200-friend-fan-limit/ StumbleUpon has plans to finally remove their 200 friend limit. I am so thrilled as this has been a huge pet peeve for me for months now. I have over 1300 fans, but I can only make 200 of them my friends…. meaning at this moment I can only ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/07/01/thenanny612-and-the-three-avatars/ I wrote a post regarding my avatar change on Collective-Thoughts. This post is a continuation of that. The avatar I had chose at the end of that post didn’t work out. And since my 6 year old daughter helped me come up with my final choice for an avatar ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/06/11/the-abcs-of-social-media/ Social Desire will be featuring Guest Posts for the next few weeks. Today’s Featured Guest Post is by Mark Dykeman. Image by Steve & Jemma Copley Everyone’s got a Top Ten list, an 8 step guide, or some other how-to post to succeeding in social media. This ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/07/22/is-it-possible-to-have-intimacy-online/ Image by uayebt Lately, I have been thinking a lot lately about Web 2.0, Social Networking & Romance. With the Next Generation of Web bringing all parts of the World together through Social Media got me wondering what this has done to Love & Intimacy. Is it possible to have Intimacy online? I ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/08/15/how-many-businesses-really-‘get’-the-social-web/ This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter. Image by activeside How many businesses really ‘get’ the social web? Rand Fishkin recently wrote a post on SEO Moz about ‘getting it’. By ‘it’ Rand was talking about the web… and he guesstimated that just one person in ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/06/04/social-media-karma-–-what-goes-around-comes-around/ This Featured Guest Post is by James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter Image by dmax3270 Do onto others as you would do to yourself. It’s a fine philosophy to live by. The laws of karma state that our personal actions & behaviour influence future experiences. In other words, we’re responsible for our ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/08/04/a-recap-of-my-1st-wonderful-year-using-stumbleupon/ July marked my first anniversary being a member of the StumbleUpon Community. It has been an incredible year for me. I have met some wonderful, wonderful people. And, I have stumbled across and discovered some truly amazing websites. Sites that if it wasn’t for StumbleUpon I probably wouldn’t have ...] http://www.socialdesire.com/2008/07/06/selling-versus-telling-does-your-site-convert/ This Featured Guest Post is by Edward Beckett of Florida Search Engine Optimization. Image by jakeliefer It would be interesting to know just how many people in Internet marketing actually had professional sales experience before marketing on the web. Having had a bit of experience in several sales sectors, ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ablereach/~3/304939960/ On Monday I had an emphatic series of visitations from the Blue Screen of Death. The hard drive is toast and I'm not so sure about the future of the computer.  Talk about expensive and irritating! Needless to say, this is a great time to toss me a $10 tip via my scratchback ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ablereach/~3/306858919/ Each weekend a new "Brunch" post will feature thoughts about balancing family and self care with working in an always-on Internet environment. This edition is by Elizabeth Able, owner of AbleReach. What can you do after your Broadband goes on the fritz, hosting is wonky, a hard drive takes a final bow and the ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ablereach/~3/301771757/ Each weekend a new "Brunch" post will feature thoughts about balancing family and self care with working in an always-on Internet environment. This edition is by Rachel Goldstein. As a parent who runs a successful Internet business, you probably assume that I have no free time to spend quality moments with my 4 young ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ablereach/~3/301855785/ I thought I'd better let everyone know that I'm putting my twice-a-week WordPress project on vacation until Thursday. You see, I'm busy moving to a new host - yipeee! I'll be back in a few days, reloaded with promised humor. In honor of brunchy balance, I may also give myself a couple days off ...] http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ablereach/~3/300945143/ submit_url = "http://ablereach.com/green/big-list-of-green-web-hosts/"; Welcome to the first edition of my Big List of Green Web Hosts. There are 22 here, and I am sure there are more out in the world that can be added later. I only included hosts with English language pages and specific information about what they are doing to be ...]