Sunday is always a good day to lay back and review what has happened in blogosphere lately.

WordPress 2.7.1 RC1 is out

Release candidate 1 of WordPress 2.7.1 is available for download on WordPress.org. You can see a list of updates here.

Crush AdWords – A 5 part series on BusinessAndBlogging.com

Danny Thompson published a must read series, filled with great advice on how to successfully use AdWords to drive traffic to your blog. Here are the chronological links to all five articles in the series:

1. Crush AdWords: The Smart Way to Drive Traffic With Pay-Per-Click Ads.
2. Crush AdWords: How to Build a Better Keyword List
3. Crush AdWords: Creating Landing Pages that Work
4. Crush AdWords: “AdWords Writing” Rocket Surgery
5. Crush AdWords: A Successful Campaign is in the Maintenance

101 Women Bloggers to Watch for 2009

WE magazine for women published a list of 101 women bloggers to watch for 2009. The list covers a wide variation of topics and I’m proud that between those selected I could find Alina Popescu, who’s a very dear friend of mine and who’s articles you’ve read as guest posts for a while here on Blogsessive.

Article marketing FAQ with Yuwanda Black

This is a good collection of answers commonly asked questions on article marketing by Yuwanda Black on BloggingTips.com. You’ll find information on writing rhythm, article submission, traffic generation and more.

And don’t forget about February 28th, the official “Thank a Plugin Developer Day“, declared by Matt Mullenweg.

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The blogosphere is big. No, wait. Actually, is HUGE and keeps on getting bigger every day with thousands of new blogs being launched. In such a competitive environment, the chances of “making it big” with your blog are drastically reduced, unless you play your cards right. Unless you publish a unique blog, it will disappear like dust in the wind.

But what’s behind a unique blog? Does your blog have what it takes to be considered unique? Let’s find out!

Unique is a collaborative term

It’s not just about the topic you choose for your blog. With 133 million blog records indexed by Technorati since 2002, I’m yet to be convinced that there is a topic of real interest that hasn’t been approached. I’m not saying not to look for something new. I’m just saying that there are also other things that make your blog one of a kind. Among them, these are the ones that matter most:

1. Choose a domain name with a twist! Make it short memorable.
2. Get a custom design. If you cannot afford one, at least get a premium theme or a free theme that offers enough customization options.
3. Write you own content. Don’t copy. Don’t rewrite.
4. Find your own voice. Develop your own writing style, with your own twist. Some choose a certain amount of humor while other prefer a more professional, balanced approach.
5. Explore your topics. Go beyond the surface information. Analyze, share views and opinions and guide your readers. Add that extra-feeling of personal experience.
6. Brand yourself. Find your spot and personality in the blogosphere. Be the “thinker”, “helper”, “announcer”, be whatever fits you, just pick a role and stick with it.

All of the above are meant to make you easier to identify in a mass of amazingly similar blogs and bloggers. If you want to survive as a blogger, you need to find a way to take your blog out of the crowd. You need that unique blog!

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In today’s edition, I have a new selection of news and interesting links to share from all around the blogosphere.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7 is approaching rapidly. The 3rd Beta version is up for grabs and the Icon design competition ended with the folks at WP selecting two wonderful contest entries as their main icon sets for WordPress 2.7.

I’d suggest taking a quick look at Technosailor’s post, as Aaron shares 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.7.

Blog monetization

MediaWhiz (Text Link Ads) launched a new advertising product called InLinks. This product allows advertisers to buy “do follow” links in your blog’s content, a thing that doesn’t quite appeal to Google and so, I’d advise you to proceed carefully with this advertising method.

Find out more about InLinks on:

• ProBlogger: InLinks – TextLinkAds 2.0
• BloggingTips.com: TLA InLinks Officially Launched

Tip’d – The Financial Digg – is out of Beta

Tip’d, a social bookmarking site, similar to Digg, but focusing of the financial niche, has officially ended the public Beta and is running the 1.0 version. Looking at the figures, this milestone is proving to be a good achievement in a field where more and more diggers and stumblers are being banned because of their “financial interests”.

Read more about Tip’d on ‘The Blog Herald’.

Group Writing Projects

The folks at ‘Blog Design Studio’ have launched an interesting group writing project. The topic is wide enough and gives you the possibility to approach from many angles: Blog Design. Why should you join? Exposure, backlinks, fun, amazing prizes and…. I’m one of the jury members! Looking forward to reading your ultra-cool blog design posts! Project ends November 30th.

Quite a while ago, Joanna Young from ConfidentWriting.com launched her own group writing project on “experimenting”. A nice selection of entries seem to already be added to the list and you can still submit yours, since the deadline is November the 30th. Do drop by her blog and find out more about this project.

Quickfire News and Links

Also, if you’re looking to read something good today, take a look at the following link:

• Syed Balkhi puts up a compilation of 113 Ways to Make Money Online;
• Adrian Diaconescu (Rubiqube.com) share eight, well documented, tips for writing clean WordPress blog posts;
• ShoeMoney launches a new, revamped Keyword Tracking Tool

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Welcome to another episode of “Blogosphere News”. What’s interesting, what’s new in the blogosphere? Let’s find out!

Darren Rowse launched TwiTip.com

The mastermind behind ProBlogger.net, Darren Rowse embarked on a new journey. Being a long time Twitter user, Darren has gathered enough experience and has learned so many things about this wonderful microblogging platform. He’s now ready to share that experience with you, on his newly launched blog, TwiTip.com.

Good luck Darren!

WordPress 2.7 Beta 1 goes public

On November 1st, the folks at WordPress.org announced that the first beta version of WordPress 2.7 is publicly available. This is said to be a turning point in WordPress’ history, just as 2.5 was.

If you want to give it a try, you can download WordPress 2.7 Beta 1. I’d advise you not to test it on your live server though. After all, it’s still a beta.

Rapid fire news and links

• Fresh New Look for Words of a Broken Mirror (redesigned by yours truly)
• BlogRush Shutting Down
• The Revolution Theme Goes Open Source
• 7 Blogging Tips from David Ogilvy
• Why Web Design Matters (for SEO)

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Enjoy this week’s selection of blogging news from across the blogosphere.

b5media to use PicApp as source for images

On May 30th, the leading blog network b5media, has teamed up with PicScout – developer of PicApp.com – to ensure accurate, appropriate image use on blogs.

From the press release:

“Members of leading blog network [will be] using new PicApp image platform for sourcing, illustrating and enhancing photos, artwork.”
Press release excerpt

“PicApp offers our bloggers tremendous selection in terms of the range and types of content they provide.”
Jeremy Wright, b5media chief executive officer

Six Apart launched free TypePad Antispam service

The new TypePad Antispam is a free, open source application, already built in the TypePad blogging platform and also available as a plugin for Movable Type 3 & 4 and WordPress 2.5. TypaPad Antispam is also 100% Akismet compatible. Since it’s only in BETA stage, bloggers are encouraged to use it and provide feedback.

“Whenever you report unwanted comments, the TypePad AntiSpam engine learns from you, so that it can make even smarter and more effective decisions about spam in the future.”
TypePad Antispam

“Last week we switched to TypePad AntiSpam as a test… After a week I’m pleased to say that as good as Akismet is, the TypePad product has performed as good or better for us.”
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

Blogsessive’s May contest ends tonight

Tonight at 24:00 EST, this month’s contest will be closed. You still have a chance to win one of the 2 .Com domain names of your choice, pre-registered for 3 years. Read the rules and join.

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Some interesting things happened recently that are of interest to any blogger. Check out these blogosphere news:

Download Flock 1.2 Beta

Flock 1.2, “the social web browser” based on the Mozilla engine goes into beta stage. I’ve gave it a shot and I can say that for a person that pretty much depends on social networking, Flock is a very good solution. Social bookmarking and networking services, all your friends and all your stories under one roof seams like a good deal to me.
The only downside (and for me it’s a big one) is that the RSS feeds take TOO long to update. The “reload” option did not work any magic either, but I guess that’s why it is a beta right?
Get over there, download it, try it and share your experience. I’m sure they’d appreciate the feedback.

Mixx announced Twitter integration

The folks over at Mixx don’t like to waste time, and there’s not much time to waste when their community seams to grow very fast. They’ve recently announced a new option of automatically post a tweet on your Twitter account whenever you add a new story to Mixx. Useful, helpful? You decide, at least it’s better to have it, than not to.

You can find out more on the Mixx Blog, and while you’re there, check out Blogsessive’s Mixx profile.

Third-party ads on the Google content network

I guess pretty much everyone who uses AdSense got the email, but just in case you’ve missed it:

“We’re happy to announce that the Google content network now accepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors. During this initial release, only ads in English are eligible, although we look forward to offering more options in the future.

If you’re currently opted in to image ads, you’re already able to receive third-party ads. If not, you can enable image ads to start receiving third-party ads immediately.”

Head over to the Google Blog if you want to read more.

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As some of you probably know by now, BloggingMix.com has been around the last year, offering quality content to the blogosphere. 3 days ago, the owner (ex-owner by now), Rocky, announced that the blog has been sold to Matt of WhyDoWork.com.

The price was not disclosed, but that’s not what I’m most interested. Very intriguing to me is the new owner’s strategy, of joining the two blogs right from the start, under the promise that Rocky would continue to post on the new, joined, blog.

The BloggingMix domain and site (much of which already directs to the new permanent locations here) will be retired sometime this week.
- Quote from the announcement on WhyDoWork.com

What I fail to understand is how redirecting straight from the start a blog that has a growing community, has been online for a year now, has 200 backlinks and 300 indexed pages, not to mention a nice SEO score, is a good acquisition strategy?

Ok, let’s say 1 year is not much, but I’m pretty sure that 1 year is enough to create affinity towards a blogger from a reader’s point of view. As a new owner, would you really think that simply making me, the reader, jump from one URL to a new one will gain my trust? Will it make me start posting comments? It surely won’t. I don’t know about the others.

We keep talking about how important it is to have good, smart, relevant content and to build a community around your blog, but in this case, it seams to me that Matt is willing to risk both: loosing indexed content and the Blogging Mix community. Or will people simply go with the flow, follow the redirect and connect with the new blog? What do you think?

Anyway, whatever the new owner’s strategy, I’m wishing good luck to Rocky with his new project and to Matt with growing the network!

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What’s new around the blogosphere? Well, some things have happened recently that worth mentioning. Check out the latest blogosphere news bellow:

The MixxMash

Mixx.com released an experimental option for their users called MixxMash. Through this option, YourMixx will be organized by type of media with content from all your categories, tags and users. Nice and easy to follow. You also have the possibility of generating a feed of your MixxMash.

They Mixx for iPhone

While we’re talking about Mixx, you should know they recently made available they service for iPhone, which can be accessed at http://i.mixx.com/.

Google’s Burning Love

FeedBurner is working on an account migration since it has been bought by Google, and, in the coming weeks, selected publishers will have the possibility to sign in using their Google account data. There is also an interest in a better integration with other Google service accounts like Google AdSense.

Roll the Dice, Give Me My Page Rank

And, as you probably know by now, since 29th, Google started updating Page Ranks. Numbers have been going up and down for the past 2 days, but they will soon settle and we’ll see the latest level of consideration that Google has for our blogs!

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