Xmas Contest: Prize Winners
December 26 is here, which means today I am going to announce the two winners of the Xmas ReTweet Contest.
Each of the winners will have the possibility of choosing one of the Premium WordPress Themes available in the WordPress category at ThemeForest as their prize.
Complete list of participants
Below you’ll find the complete list of participants (39) that had valid contest entries (followed both steps in order to enter the competition):
1. Bloghita - @bloghita 2. Marius. - @Marius__ 3. Radu Panciuc - @panciuc 4. Eugen - @pauneugen 5. Nikolaevi4 - @Nikolaevi14 6. JeremyOLED - @JeremyOLED 7. Aldo - @iFeelanceWeb 8. Kimberly Castleberry - @KimJCastleberry 9. AlexT - @alext_1020 10. Razvan Girmacea - @RazvanGirmacea 11. Cristian VADUVA - @Vaduva 12. Youwei - @Youwei 13. Calítoe.:. - @Calitoe 14. Daniel - @danielpeisar 15. Anand Srinivasan - @knewthis 16. Margaret Ayad - @eracose 17. Nice from Thailand - @SE7ENize 18. Jennifer - @grizzarkhov 19. Dimitry Ekzarkhov - @design_deity 20. Tracy - @mattnem05 21. Dhaunae @Dhaunae 22. Jessica Dooley - @jessicadooley 23. Jason - @jasontromm 24. elmot - @elmot 25. Kat - @simplywp 26. Codrut @ Blog Post Ideas - @CodrutTurcanu 27. Damir - @wisehat79 28. Melvin - @melvinblog 29. Prasanth Chandra - @pcsbox 30. Jacob Yap - @jacobyap 31. Raju - @rajupp 32. naz - @aenaz 33. Suhas - @suhastech 34. Siddanth 35. Slipdisc - @Roadrippersid 36. technbohowl - @technohowl 37. Rich - @fireitup4USA 38. Michael Cannon - @SMARTcutGeek 39. Kushal Chen - @slayershanks
Click here to read the full blog post!
Xmas Contest: ReTweet to Win a Premium WordPress Theme
How long has it been since I’ve held the last contest on Blogsessive? Too long, but since holidays are close, lets have some fun and make two of you folks the owners of a brand new premium WordPress theme from ThemeForest. It is a simple contest and everyone owning a Twitter account is invited to join in!
Xmas Contest Prizes
Two of the contest participants will each win a premium WordPress theme of their choice from ThemeForest. Contest prize selection is restricted to the WordPress category on the previous mentioned website.
The two winners will be randomly picked by me on the day of December 26th. Read the rules below.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Blog Writing Tips from the World’s Most Famous Authors
You know me, I always encourage you to experiment, to learn new things, to reinvent yourself, but sometime the wheel doesn’t not need to be reinvented. Sometimes the best thing to do is to learn from the experience and wisdom of our “elders”. Such is the case of today’s blog post. Instead of sharing some of my own tips with you, I’ll leave you in the company of some of the world’s most famous authors and only interpret their teachings in the art of writing.
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
Matthew Arnold
It’s easy to get lost in words and ideas. It’s harder to keep your writing concise and to the point, to make it clear and easy to read. Focus on getting your ideas across, to your readers, in their most natural form. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Matthew Arnold both agree on this.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive
As promised a while back, I’ve finished editing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF eBook format. So, today I give you the chapters you’ve had the chance to read online plus a whole new chapter (8. Technical aspects) and some bonus tips to guide you in your corporate blogging adventures!
How to download the eBook?
In order to download the ebook, all you have to do is to subscribe for free to Blogsessive’s RSS feed (if you haven’t done so until now) and you’ll find the download link at the end of each article in the feed.
eBook preview and contents
Here are two screenshots of the book’s cover and the contents page:
Click here to read the full blog post!
Blogsessive News for this December
Hello folks, how’s everybody? The last week I’ve been working hard on a couple of projects, mostly related to Blogsessive. December is here and the New Year is just around the corner. I’m asking for your patience while I sort these “issues” out with a target in mind: The winter holidays should bring a couple of surpises on Blogsessive. I’ve been working really hard and trying to solve all things in parallel (both client work and work for Blogsessive), but it takes a little more than expected.
Fact is, I sure don’t want to get into the new year without giving you the gifts I’m preparing, so stay close cause this is what I’m getting ready to accomplish by the end of this week:
- The latest free WordPress theme (business CMS style): Corporate WP – Final stages
- Complete redesign of Blogsessive.com – In progress
- Switching servers – New server has been acquired and it is setup as we speak. I’ll move to the new server as soon as the new design is in place.
- Publishing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF format (Free) with an added chapter.
Thanks for your patience and I cannot wait to finish these jobs and to share views with you on them!
10 new WordPress plugins you might want to test
The wonderful community of WordPress developers constantly provides us with interesting new themes and plugins. I have scanned the most recent WordPress plugin releases and came up with a list of 10 plugins definitely worth taking a look at.
Keep in might that these are new releases and so, their stability and status should be considered as BETA. You might want to test them on a backup server before going live. The descriptions listed here are those submitted by the plugins’ authors and do not necessarily express my views.
1. WP Content Slideshow
WP Content Slideshow shows up to 5 Posts in a very nice and powerfull Javascript Slideshow. On the left side of the Slideshow it displays an image for every post. On the right side, there are all the titles (and a small description under the title) of the posts. The Slideshow highlights the active post and repeats automatically after getting to the 5th post. You have a powerfull Administration Area to adjust the category, the number of posts, the width and height, and many colours for the Slideshow!
Download: WP Content Slideshow
Compatibility: 2.6+
2. Sidebar Generator
Now you can create as many sidebars as you need for any page you want. Thats right, page/post specific sidebars. You can easily seperate your site into sections, or make every single page have specific sidebar content on it. Great for CMS sites.
Download: Sidebar Generator
Compatibility: 2.8.0+
3. WordPress Tabs Slides
Tabs and Slides (in post/page) Plugin gives you the ability to easily add content tabs and/or content slides. The tabs emulate a multi-page structure, while the slides emulate an accordion-like structure, inside a single page!
Download: WordPress Tabs Slides
Compatibility: 2.5+
4. Custom Login Page
With the Custom Login Page, you can change the background image of your login page, the background image/color of your login form div, the main logo image of your login page, and add custom CSS. All through a simple interface. Remember to view the Help tab at the top of the settings page of the plugin.
Download: Custom Login Page
Compatibility: 2.0.2+
Click here to read the full blog post!
Corporate Blogging Guide (7): Blog Performance Tracking Tools
A blog’s success is measured through both its number of active readers or of RSS subscribers and its performance in traffic: number of page views, of unique visitors, popularity, page rank and many others.
There are a few methods to obtain the needed statistics to track and measure such indicators.
1. Access and traffic statistics
Google, the most powerful and popular search engine in the world, provides bloggers with traffic statistics though its free Google Analytics service.
By choosing a free Google Analytics account, you can view stats regarding your blog’s page views, number of unique or returning visitors, keywords used to reach your blog, the most visited pages you have posted, geographical tracking of your visitors and much more.
Google Analytics is currently considered to be a very accurate and relevant tool. Other services you might consider are StatCounter or Woopra with its live tracking and analytics features.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Halloween Special: Don’t be afraid to blog!
Happy Halloween folks! As you might have noticed, Blogsessive has changed its “clothes” on this special occasion. Don’t worry, the nerd will be back tomorrow, when Dracula “leaves the building”.
Now, since this is a special occasion, the topic for today’s article has been inspired by a comment I received on part 6 of the Corporate Blogging Guide:
I think we all start our blogs worried people might not like us and when they do, we don’t want to change for fear of losing readers. I’ll take experiments to stagnation any day.
David Walker
The moment I read David’s comment I knew he made a really good remark. It is fear that keeps us in place. It is fear that keeps us from “spreading our wings”. We abide all the rules and all things that we know for sure will work and hope to be the next blogging “rockstar”. But, do you really believe those “rockstars” we all follow are there because they are copycats? Because they follow rules? Or might it be possible that they are the ones creating new rules? Might they be the ones revolutionizing the concepts?
Do you want to be a better blogger? Then…
Click here to read the full blog post!
Corporate Blogging Guide (6): Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Regardless of the blog type you choose, be it personal or corporate, the following pieces of advice are meant to guide your steps in your future blogging activity. These are the most important blog tips you’ll need to follow when starting a new blogging adventure!
1. Look for ideas at any time and in any place
A conversation in the subway, a debate or piece of news heard on the car radio, anything can turn into a new topic for your blog. Keep your mind open and tune your hearing, combine them with good analysis skills and you will have some killer weapons in your arsenal.
2. Raise and maintain interest
An attractive first paragraph is not enough to maintain the reader’s interest throughout your blog post. “Start big, finish bigger”. Provide new hooks in small doses to keep your readers interest throughout the article.
3. Generate the conversation and take part in it
Often times, bloggers are compared to journalists, and their blogs to newspapers (usually tabloids, not broadsheets). Yet blogs and online newspapers differ exactly where they are also alike – the comments section. Newspapers use the comments section to allow users to express their frustrations and almost never moderate them. The classic journalistic style rarely requires an answer or any feedback, usually being limited to presenting the facts or expressing an opinion.
The main ace bloggers play is their power to start conversations and to keep them going by being part of them.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Corporate Blogging Guide (5): Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Depending on the type of corporate blog you’re targeting, you can then put together an editorial team. To make sure you correctly appoint those in charge of content generation and blog management, you need to consider the following criteria:
1. Criteria to help build the editorial team
The future bloggers needs to be/have:
- Experts in the filed they are going to cover;
- A good communicator, able to manage potential communication crises arising from dialogues and feedback generated by the blog;
- Concise, clear and explicit when they express themselves, as they will not target only those who are in their turn experts and are acquainted to the field’s jargon;
- Believable and genuine in what the provided information is concerned;
- A human touch and a pleasant manner of writing;
- Ready to face a reduced level of privacy in their lives, at least in what the online world is concerned.
2. PR department involvement
Most communications through the corporate blog usually abide by the general public relations policies within the company, thus it is strongly recommended that your blogger(s) work together with your PR department. Their collaboration helps:
- abide by the general communication tone imposed by company standards;
- prevent or, if needed, manage possible communication crises;
- develop the bloggers’ communication skills and ability to generate valuable content.
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