A Growing List of Top Google Buzz Tips

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Once you realize that there is life beyond social networking on Twitter you’ll want to explore Google Buzz. This is a list of tips that I started but has been contributed to by members of the Buzz community.  I’ll expand this post with any significant Buzz tips that you have. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD SOMETHING PLEASE LEAVE YOUR SUGGESTED TIP ON BUZZ at:

Essential Tips for Google Buzz newcomers!

1. Learn how to mute a post! if you don’t every time there’s a new comment it pops back to the top of your stream
2. Don’t send your Tweets to Buzz!! Buzzers ignore tweets. If we want to see Tweets we open HootSuite (I mean Twitter)
3. Like posts and leave comments directly on Buzz – unless you don’t really want to meet anyone new….
4. You can have a conversation on Buzz. I mean a real honest to goodness conversation – not a conversation that gets cut off!
5. Don’t forget to leave comments on the blog, too, if the Buzz is about a blog post – via @Holly Jahangiri
6. You can track your Buzz posts AND comments by using this search formula via@Julian Bond
7. At the top of the Buzz frame you will see Web Clips “they grab stories from a default set of feeds. Under “Settings”, the “Web Clips” tab lets you control what feeds they read from, or turn them off entirely” via @Josh Wills
8. This tip comes from@Steve Pirk “We call it @’ing or summoning. To make a person a link, Enter this without the spaces – @ gmail-username @gmail.com . This creates a reference to the user and the message goes to gmail inbox.” For example if you want to “summon” me you would type @msileane@gmail.com
9. If you want people to comment on your Buzz posts, first you have to comment and interact with other user’s Buzzes. via @Robert Sanchez Jr
10. Search Gooogle profiles to find interesting Buzzers with this link http://www.google.com/profiles?q= via @Joe DeGroff
11. Customized Buzz charts track individual Buzz usage stats and they are provided by developer @Siegfried Hirsch
12. You can have a private conversation in Buzz, I saw these instructions posted by @Rob Gordon but he got them from @Steve Pirk
13. Update your Google Profile with your Profile URL. You can find this at the bottom of the edit profile screen via @Andrew Maxwell
14. TaggingBuzz is a Chrome extension (see video below) that allows you create Buzz tags and search for them later via @Nori Hamamoto

For advanced users, Steve Pirk shared a bonus tip for adding VERIFIED NAME to your Google profile. Currently VERIFIED NAME is available for US based users and Steve gives credit for this tip to @LindaLawrey.

Leave a comment and let me know if you find these Buzz tips are helpful. Remember if you have Buzz tips add them on Buzz.

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SEO Site Tools Finds Google Page Rank

[tweetmeme source=”ileane”]What is Google page rank and what does it really represent? Sorry, I can’t answer that question although I see many bloggers trying. If you’re like me you’ve read countless blog posts promising to unlock the mysteries of increasing your page rank. Yet each time Google does an update like they did earlier this month, many of those same bloggers wake up to find that have slid down the slippery page rank ladder a notch or two. Go figure!

Well since I admit that the true value of Google page rank has me utterly baffled, the least I can do is introduce you to a little known extension for Google Chrome to help you find your page rank, or for the matter the PR of any site you navigate to.

Favorite Google Chrome extensions

First I must tell you this neat little social media story. For a couple of days I was tweeting a question to my followers asking which Chrome extensions they find useful. I got some great feedback and as a result ended up installing many of the recommendations and creating screencasts for some like Diigo, Zemanta and Readability. The other great thing that happened was that I was contacted by the developer of the extension that is the subject of my latest screencast tutorial. The developer’s name is Cole Carter and the extension is SEO Site Tools.

The point to this story is to demonstrate the simple power of social networking and how it can be worked to your advantage. I also wanted to let introduce you to Cole because he is looking for user feedback for this tool and he can be contacted if you have questions about the functions.

Why use SEO Site Tools

My favorite feature of SEO Site Tools is how it auto-magically displays the PR for any site you navigate to right on top of the tool icon. This means you can get rid of all those “prchecker” links you have in your favorites, because once you download this extension you will no longer need them. You can be done with going back and forth to find Alexa rankings too! All of the additional ranking information you need is displayed when you click on the tool. Take look at SEO Site Tool Demo – Ms. Ileane Speaks Episode #025.

You can see this tool has many features to help evaluate your site. In the video we had a look at some stats from 2createawebsiteand here’s the link for Lisa Irby’s blog.

SEO resources

Hungry for more SEO tips? The first blog that I would visit to learn about SEO is TimeThief’s One Cool Site Blogging Tips. Her site is packed with sound advice and numerous blogging tips and tutorials. Also check out Kikolani from Kristie Hines and her weekly Fetching Friday resources mashup, which always includes links to SEO resources. And last but certainly not least, follow Ann Smarty on Twitter, she writes for Search Engine Journal and started a fabulous community focused on guest blogging called MyBlogGuest.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Will you give SEO Site Tools a try?  And how you make out with the latest PR update?

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Guest Posting Contest – Will I Be A Winner?

[tweetmeme source=”ileane”]Guest posting is an excellent way to gain exposure for your brand and promote your blog to a new audience. I’ve done a few guest posts recently and I’ve even hosted guest posts from other bloggers, but for the first time ever I’ve entered a guest blogging contest!

I briefly mentioned the contest in my last post when I gave a Grand Tour of FamousBloggers.net and that helped me build the confidence to actually enter the guest blogging contest myself. Now I’m really nervous about my chances of winning because the competition is so steep! Take a good look at the prize sponsors from Hesham’s list and you’ll start to get an idea about what I’m going after.

Take a look to our sponsors once again

FamousBloggers.net – contest organizer

MyBlogGuest.com our contest media partner

WebmasterFormat.com – Webmaster Resource *new

MMO social network – making money online tips

DesignGizer.com a new design bookmark site

Better Blogging for Bloggers blog

DennisEdell.com – Dennis Edell *new

IBlogZone.com a making money online blog

CrazyEgg.com heat mapping tools

SimplyFreshThemes.com Fresh Journal WP theme *new

Kiesha @ WeBlogbetter.com Blogging tips & tricks *new

JohnPaulAguiar.com – Twitter Dummy Guide *new

Ok so now you are going to think that I totally lost my mind because I going to tell you that you can take part in the contest too if you hurry (and I mean right this minute) and contact Hesham on his blog. Full details are available at Guest Blogging Contest. March 31, 2010 was the deadline but I think he will make an exception for you if your nice to him.  When the doors are shut I will edit this post accordingly.

Support fellow bloggers!

Even if you decide that you’re not going to participate, you can make a contribution to the blogging community by visiting these guest posts and leaving valuable comments. My guest post To Buzz or Not To Buzz? That My Friends is a Great Question is one of over 20 that were submitted. And I know you are going to think I’ve lost all common sense now when I say this:

Pick any post from the list that you want to support it doesn’t have to be mine!

Really I haven’t gone “completely” mad. I just realize that the whole point of the contest is to be supportive of one another and to build a strong blogging community. So any post that you want to leave a comment on or Retweet, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit – even a share on Google Buzz will be appreciated. This will give you a chance to possibly meet a new blogger and find someone interesting to network with.

The Prizes!

We started by giving a way $248 worth prizes, and we have got more then the doubled the prizes thanks to our sponsors, we have raised $712.75 for our five winners!

Unbelievable right? Can’t say I didn’t tell you ahead of time, but I think I really have your attention now. I promise you, this is NO April Fools Joke!

Chrome Extension For Improved Readability

Image via CrunchBase

The Google Chrome Extensions library is filled with many of the same add-ins that FireFox users have enjoyed all along. My favorite Chrome Extentions Zemanta, Diigo, Chome SEO and SEO Site Tools. [tweetmeme source=”ileane”]

I recently installed a Google Chrome extension called Readability Redux. I learned about this plugin from Bruce Ganek in Making Webpages Easier to Read – The Readability Bookmarklet. Here’s  the installation demo from the developer Arc90, and here’s a closer look at Readability in Episode #021 of  Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast.

I hope that using this tool will address the concerns of some website owners over the unfair use of browser adblockers. With Readability users will catch a glimpse of the ads served on monetized sites before switching to an uncluttered ad-free, sidebar-free view of any blog post. You can also email the post to others from the Readability view.  Why don’t you give it a try?

Do you have favorite extension for Google Chrome?

UPDATE: On June 15, Arc90 announced 2 features have been added to the Readability extension for Chrome:

1. Converts links in text to footnotes
2. Keyboard Shortcuts

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What’s More Important? Your SEO or Your Readers?

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This is the second guest post by Karen from Blazing Minds. She’s a recording artist with the Electronica Duo band Remergence and a top-notch blogger. Karen’s blog is DoFollow.

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We all consider the SEO of our blogs and I have personally found that sometimes it takes a lot effort to find those correct keyword and or key phrases to add in to your blog post to try to produce those magic results for the search engines to pick you up and give you a good SERP.

Then you have to work on which search engines you want higher rankings on and work on producing your posts to gain better SERP in each engine. But, is this really that important, isn’t there something else you should be considering as well, your readers!

Take into consideration that it is your blogs readers that bring you the traffic and by keeping in contact with them via replying to their comments and finding out what your readers are saying as well as what they are searching for also helps with the overall way that your blog is purveyed.

Ok, so I know that a lot of bloggers will say, “keep to your niche” but, what if you enjoy blogging about anything and everything, I know I do, so I look at my stats in WordPress and see what everyone is looking for and usually go from there with my ideas for a blog post and recently I don’t try to go to over the top with searching for those magically keywords, I now have the tendency to look for related searches in Google and go from there and since doing this my hits from Google have improved as those of you who read my blog will have noticed from the weekly round-up that I post.

So at the end of the day my recommendation is listen to your readers, communicate with them via the comments they leave and find out what they find interesting, your blog stats will show the posts that get more hits than others, check those out and see what caused them to get more traffic/comments than others and use this information to improve your overall blogging.

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Diigo Extension for Google Chrome Browser

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[tweetmeme source=”ileane”]I have a great blogging tip for you, If you haven’t tried using the Google Chrome Browser, I highly recommend that you do. The free Chrome Browser has a reputation for being the fastest browser available.

Several developers have created extensions for Chrome and the Diigo Web Highlighter and Bookmark is one of my favorites. In this screencast you will see how Diigo works.

How-to Download the Diigo Chrome Extension

Google Chrome and the Diigo extension are two powerful tools for any blogger, educator or student who wants to organize a collection of all the resources they find on the internet. You can learn about the articles relating to using the WordPress.com blogging service in a collection and group called WordPress.com Diigo Group. It’s a great idea to join or start your own Diigo group for your favorite subjects.

I also recommend using the Zemanta Extention for Google Chrome and you can learn more about it in a guest post I was featuered in at WeBlogBetter.com called Blog More Efficiently With The Zemanta Chrome Plugin. Find out about 9 Life Saving Chrome Plug-ins for Bloggers in this post from Gordon Cindric.

Will you please share your favorite Google Chrome extension?

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Dealing with Negative Blog Comments

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This is a guest post from Alison Moore Smith. Alison is a homeschooling mom of six amazing children, ages 6-22. Married for over 24 years, she and he husband are best friends and business partners. Alison is a public speaker, author, blogger, web designer, singer, actress, ballroom dancer, and chocolate lover. She helps people start blogging and wants you to make your life amazing.

Her goal is to be ready for anything!

The first time I ever spoke at a convention, my intent was to get through the ordeal without being pelted with overripe fruit. The fact that attendees would later vote on the speakers was a tidbit I chose to pay as little conscious attention to as possible.

A number of weeks later I was informed that I had been voted favorite speaker of the convention. But it could easily have been otherwise.

Currently I’m performing as Buttercup in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Having spent most of the last 20 years behind the scenes, I’m greatly relieved to know that the community theater I’m performing in gets fact-related newspaper coverage as opposed to serious arts reviews! I’m not sure I’m ready for a prime time critique.

Blogging is the most public of venues. Forget “worldwide web,” it’s a worldwide stage. And when you decide to blog, the very format of blogging software says that you are not only committing to share you thoughts and ideas with the world, but you’re open to hearing the world share back with you.

If you write interesting and insightful posts, if you make claims — if you have an opinion about anything — someone will have an opposing view. And if you can broaden your circle of readers beyond those reading out of familial obligation (generally a desired goal!) your readers might speak up to challenge you.

Are you ready to handle that with civility?

Black History Month Ends With Aha!

Image via Wikipedia

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This is a guest post from a prolific blogger and my dearest personal friend Kissie. Her blog is Still Kissie you can also follow her on Twitter.

Author Carter G. Woodson stated the importance of remembering our past in The Journal of Negro History. “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” he said.

The month of February now represents Woodson’s movement with Black History Month, which started as Negro History Week, as an opportunity to represent the achievements of blacks from the past to the present day and implement them into our nation’s history.

And on that note, 28 days!!! Ugh! (Time flies!) (Can’t disappoint – must write post quickly….that was my mantra all month.)

It began with a stir this year, yes. It’s ending with relief and an aha.

Blogging Legacy – Have You Considered Yours?

[tweetmeme source=”ileane” style=”compact”]This is a guest post from Jimi Jones. Jimi is an Internet Entrepreneur and his blog is Jimi Jones Dot Com and on his about page he states “My focus is Online Business Start-ups and Branding.“ You can also find Jimi on Blogging Wire at Jimi Jones.

As bloggers we are often too close to the content we produce to realize it’s true value, not in a monetary way, but from a historical aspect.

When we think about our ancestors there are often huge voids in the timeline of their lives and we turn to family Bibles and old photo albums in an attempt to fill in those gaps and have a better understanding of who these people really were and what life for them was like.

For many, we only know of the stories shared by family elders at reunions, cookouts and those sad final goodbyes.

In today’s technologically advanced world we can leave a full and complete story for future generations. Passing on our life’s values and stories can more accurately depict the times in which we live.

The written word is an all powerful thing, communicating ethics, religion, love for family and yes, even the negative aspects of the times. But these things are more valuable than any fortune of money.

Have you considered your legacy?

As a blogger we write with great regularity about tips and techniques, ways to broaden our social footprint and a host of other topics. We should also write for those beyond the audience of our blogs, those yet to be born into the world.

Think ahead 75 or 100 years, what would you like for your descendants to know about you and the quality of life you experienced? Would you like to be more than a long ago placed photograph in the family album?

Legacies are extremely important and are influential to those who are a part of the family bloodlines. Everyone wants to know where they came from and what drove their ancestors to be who they were. It is a powerful thing to know your family history and for far too many, this history is incomplete.

Our blogging skills can be a tool of rediscovery, a way to close the gap. Legacies are a gift to be handed down to future generations. Our legacies are gifts that reward today and tomorrow. You benefit now while building something for future generations.

Step back from the keyboard for a moment and think about your family members that you will never meet in your lifetime. Think about what you could do to contribute to them.

We are all somebody so be somebody not only today, but well into the future.

Keep Blogging!

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Tribute to PBS Programming

[tweetmeme source=”ileane” style=”compact”] PBS is the award winning public broadcasting service that has captured our hearts and minds since the days of watching Sesame Street as a child. As adults, we continue to find quality programming on PBS that rivals cable TV. They currently have a line up of high-quality shows and specials that appeal to every interest. This show is one of my favorites.

NOVA scienceNOW

Hosted by the esteemed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson NOVA scienceNOW is one of the most cutting-edge programs you’ll find anywhere on the planet.  One popular episode teaches us the science behind Auto-Tune, the once-upon-a-time music industry secret used to keep singers perfectly in pitch, and now made widely-popular by Jay-Z in this song D.O.A. [Death of Auto-Tune].

The Story of reCAPTCHA

In September of 2009 Google acquired reCAPTCHA, but in June of 2009 Louis von Ahn was profiled in this episode of NOVA science NOW. You can visit the PBS site and see this very intriguing story of an amazing professor from Carnegie Mellon University who created the software and the huge role you and I play in it. Here’s an excerpt from Neil’s narration during the episode:

You are part of Luis’ master plan to mobilize the largest workforce in the history of mankind, the millions of people who use the internet.

Luis began to work on a project that involved digitizing all the old books that were ever written. The problem is that some of these books are from the 1800’s and they can’t be scanned successfully because they the quality of the type is poor. Many of those old books have begun to fade and become warped, smudged and faded. So he took all the words that can’t be scanned and added them to the original CAPTCHA. That’s why you see two words in what is called a reCAPTCHA. The theory is that if you spell one word correctly (the CAPTCHA) then you most likely will spell the other word correctly (the reCAPTCHA).

Now you can understand why you find reCAPTCHA so gut-wrenchingly annoying.  You’re working on Google’s next project and once again you are not getting paid.

You can look forward to more reviews of PBS programming. What are some of your favorites?

Image credit: Wikipedia

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