Update: 25 Blogs Listed!

On Monday I listed another blog and that brought the total to 25! Wow, I would like to thank everyone for their support.

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If you check the sidebar you'll see that I have an SOB button now. I have said previously that I am my own judge of how I am doing. It is nice, however, to get some outside recognition.

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Let me know if the sidebar still loads slowly. I moved the comic to the bottom because it slowed things down even with a fast cable connection.

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Thanks to Nic and Peter for mentioning BBD in their blogs. They are influencing my visitor stats. (Most of my blogs have the USA in top place).

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I have seen bloggers with blogs listed here visiting other listed blogs. That's great! Look around and you might find a new favourite blog.

New Listings

Here are the blogs listed in the last ten days. I added a *new listings label to the sidebar. This should help readers find the latest listings even though new posts push them off of the index page.

2 Lazy 4 Video

A Designer's Ramblings

Fish Creek House - INNside Innkeeping

Instigator Blog

Mickey's Musings

Milky Tea

PixelPLEXUS

Romsky's

The Thoughts of Joshua Davis

PixelPLEXUS

Blog Name: PixelPLEXUS

Blog URL: http://pixelplexus.co.za/blog

Description: where pixels meet for drinks after a hard day.

Instigator Blog

Blog Name: Instigator Blog

Blog URL: http://www.instigatorblog.com

Description: Instigator Blog is about entrepreneurship, small business, technology and marketing. Toss in a bit of Web 2.0 and some general insights on leadership, management, blogging and business success and you're set! The goal is to entertain and engage the greater community of people out there with ideas, discussion and to help create better businesses.

Fish Creek House - INNside Innkeeping

Blog Name: Fish Creek House - INNside Innkeeping

Blog URL: http://fishcreekhouse.blogspot.com

Description: Journal of a bed and breakfast innkeeper and of travel tips and what's cooking. Come on Inn

Romsky's

Blog Name: Romsky's

Blog URL: www.todaytrip.blogspot.com

Description: Rantings of a slightly deranged mind.

About The Information Links

I am pleased that I finally got my Information Links posted here.

The links were originally posted at UpdateLinks in 2004. I am happy to say that all of the links worked when I tested them last night and only needed minor editing. I may add some more links from UpdateLinks or other old blogs.

These sites were selected in 2004 because I felt they were interesting and inspiring. I hoped that readers would want to learn more and would write about what they discovered. This fit the mandate of UpdateLinks' companion blog (Victoria Update) and it fits the mandate for BBD.

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Note: I turned off comments for the Information Links post. If you have comments or suggestions please do so here.

Information Links For Bloggers

Bloggers can always use interesting ideas to blog about. The following links are presented to inspire my readers to write and promote learning. They first appeared in UpdateLinks a linkblog dedicated to mental health and education.

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Africa Writing Systems

allmusic - information on classical and popular music.

AncientScripts.com - an interesting site about writing systems and linguistics. There are also some games.

Astrobiology Magazine - Search for Life in the Universe. The link leads to the extensive glossary.

Astronomy Picture of the Day - refresh your browser to bring up the latest picture.

BBC - Prehistoric Life - interactive games and information about prehistory.

CIA World Factbook

Earth and Moon Viewer - Look at the earth from satellites or look at specific cities from space.

Encyclopedia Mythica - an encyclopedia of Mythology, Folklore, and Legends.

Encyclopaedia of the Orient

Educational Web Adventures - interactive educational websites featuring some interesting material.

Education Resources - Subject Index

Ethnologue - Languages of the World.

Lyrics On Demand

MapQuest - online maps.

Omniglot - a guide to writing systems.

Religious Tolerance.org - a site promoting religious understanding, tolerance and freedom.

Religious Worlds - information and links for study and interpretation of religions.

Shamanism - Working With Animal Spirits- this site has many beautiful animal pictures and some audio files.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History

I Want To Be An SOB

One of the things I like most about blogging is that I get to 'meet', and sometimes work with, all types of people. I admin various group blogs and try to turn each into a mini community. I do this for two reasons: I like blogging and I like to support/encourage other bloggers.

Working with other bloggers has been very rewarding. I have learned a lot from them and have helped some of them. Some of these people remain friends after they quit blogging.

People who know me probably get tired of me talking about blogging or interesting blogs. I tend to browse blogs a lot and I may mention one or two I think the person might like. Creating and promoting BBD has given me lots to talk/write about.

Last week I followed a series of links from Blog Herald and ended up at Successful Blog. It was there that I learned about being an SOB (Successful And Outstanding Blogger). Normally I don't get too excited about 'being professional' when blogging because I do it for fun. I was interested in seeing what useful information the blog offered either onsite or through links. I found lots of interesting stuff.

I like how Liz brings together many different ideas and people. I found this very apparent during the Tuesday night Open Comment sessions. Discussions take place in blog comments and can cover everything from business ideas to food and jokes. Sometimes the conversations can get silly and that's part of the fun.

I plan to blog about building community at some point. I will probably mention Successful Blog again because the Tuesday night sessions do bring people together. We interact and check other participants' blogs. (I always use the BBD URL to promote this blog).

I want to be an SOB. I am not talking about getting a cool button for my blog and getting linked. (Although that would be nice). I want to be a successful blogger on my own terms. One who writes the best way he can, who supports other bloggers, and one who is passionate about blogging. If I can do those things I guess I am an SOB.

Mickey's Musings

Blog Name: Mickey's Musings

Blog URL: http://mickey.ondragonswing.com

Description: Every weekend we host the Carnival of the Dogs where bloggers send links to either dog related blog posts or photo blogs of their pups. During the week, general "musings" of a 50 year old newlywed in a marriage that is often separated by over 500 miles!

BBD Is Growing

The directory has grown to 16 blogs in the 18 days since it began. I should have more blogs to list when I hear back from some friends.

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I have been reading some of the blogs and find the variety of ideas interesting.

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I would like to thank the bloggers at T3G:2 and Sparkling Diversity for mentioning BBD in their blogs.

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I may create an expanded links page as a post and link to it from the sidebar. This would allow me to link to many blogworthy sites without having an unmanageable sidebar.

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Recent additions include:

Dech

Have Fun with English

Invincible Summer

OLIVER LOPENA photography

Sparkling Diversity

The Collected Memory

Dech

Blog Name: Dech

Blog URL: http://www.dech.co.uk

Description: Design and technology news, opinion and links.

New Sidebar Links

I have added several new links to the sidebar. I also renamed the 'Links' section to 'Information And Inspiration'. I added a new section called 'Blogging Basics'. Most of the sites I have listed in various blogs over the years.

I found two of the links recently while reading other blogs. Thanks to Successful Blog for Blogging Tips and T3G:2 for What Is Blogging?

Let me know what you think and feel free to suggest more links.

The Collected Memory

Blog Name: The Collected Memory

Blog URL: http://zwz.blogspot.com

Description: "The existence of writing changed the nature of memory". I do not write, I read. If found some thing good, this is where I would like to keep them.

Find A Blog

The easiest way to find a blog is to search using labels. Labels appear at the bottom of each post and in the "Labels" section of the sidebar.

You can search using labels describing the content or locations discussed in a blog. For example: books or Victoria. Be aware that starred labels (those with a * at the beginning of the word) are only used for topics discussed in this blog.

Every blog is given an alphanumeric label based on it's name. You can search for specific blogs using these labels. For example Firemind can be found by clicking on the def label and 2 Lazy 2 Blog by clicking on 0-9.

Every blog listed in the directory is given the # label. You can use the label to browse through the directory when you aren't sure what you are looking for.

The information listed when you click on a label is not sorted alphanumerically. Hopefully that problem will be resolved in the future.

Have Fun With English

Blog Name: Have Fun with English.

Blog URL: http://www.fun-with-english.co.uk/

Description: Anything that is funny and English. I get sent a lot of jokes and puns - some of them end up here.

Coming Soon: An "About Me" Post

I talk a lot about blogging here and yet my beta-Blogger profile is basic and the blogs listed are fairly new. I have a lot of blogging experience and have tried many services but readers of this blog have to troll too much to find the information. A good 'About Me' page will let readers know who they are dealing with.

Update: Here is the link.

Blog Promotion Works!

I have been keeping an eye on visitor stats for Big Blog Directory and Braindance. Both blogs are listed in my beta-Blogger profile and may be found using Blogger's 'Next Blog' feature.

Braindance

The blog was started on October 29, 2006 and mentioned in Firemind and Big Blog Directory. It was also linked to from these blogs. No other promotion was done

Statcounter shows 41 hits.

Big Blog Directory

The blog was started on October 31, 2006. I mentioned the blog in Firemind and Braindance and linked to it from each blog. I mentioned the blog in three Flickr groups: Bloggers, Photobloggers, and Educational Bloggers. I also uploaded some of the posts from the 'BBD Blog' to the Canadian Blog Exchange.

Statcounter shows 309 hits.

Comment

Both blogs were started around the same time and have been updated regularly. The promoted blog has almost 8 times as many hits as the other one.

The subject matter of each blog and the method of promotion at Flickr probably influence the stats. "Promote your blog" attracts more bloggers than "read my blog". Reading blogs is nice but most of us want our blogs to be read even more.

It would be interesting to see how much of a difference there was between two similar blogs (personal blogs for example).

Sparkling Diversity

Blog Name: Sparkling Diversity

Blog URL: http://home.hamptonroads.com/blog/index.cfm?uid=62

Description: This blog is an exploration of diversity in people, culture and thought. It tends toward being opinionated, but also allows the reader to comment with his or her opinion. Topics covered include politics, religion, ethnicity, life-styles and just about any other aspect of being a diverse human being.

BBD Buttons

Here are some buttons I made for BBD. Copy the images and post them on your own website or upload them to the Blogger photo servers.













To make the button a link this is the format you need:

< a href="http://bigblogdir.blogspot.com/">< img src="http://url of button/button3.gif">< /a) - (no spaces after the <'s).

The final image link will look like this:



I made these buttons using Adam Kalsey's Button Maker and Cooltext.com.

I may make some more buttons later.

Update: I have added a How to link to BBD page.

Invincible Summer

Blog Name: Invincible Summer

Blog URL: http://invinciblesummer13.blogspot.com

Description: I write about whatever I want, whenever the feeling strikes me or I have something to say. Usually it is something sarcastic. I'll talk about books, music and movies a lot or put up some of my photography. Mostly though, it's just random or whatever is making me happy/sad/peeved at the time.

OLIVER LOPENA photography

OLIVER LOPENA photography

http://www.oliverlopena.com

Photocentric Music Blog Featuring Concert Photos, Reviews, And More (NYC/NJ/Philadelphia).

Five New Blogs Listed

Wow! This has been a busy night for me. I just added five new blogs to the directory and I am learning a lot about this project.

I like the # and alphanumeric labels. They bring some order to the directory.

I have already found some differences in labelling. Fore example I now have tech and technology being used. This will add to the labels but allows people the freedom to choose. I would probably not allow 'technologee' or 'xtechnology' (for example) just to make a unique label.

Some of the submissions didn't include a country label. Knowing the total number of listings from each country would be interesting but isn't that important for some blogs. For some blogs location is irrelevant to the topics discussed.

I have found that long multi-word labels sometimes make the post load slowly when I first 'save as draft'. I am not sure why and will note it if it happens again.

I wish there was a way to make all the labels lowercase or uppercase or initial-letter capitalized. I started to only use small letters but when I copy-pasted some labels capitals showed up. This is more of a cosmetic issue and a minor one but it would be a fice feature.

I may have to reword or clarify my 'Submit Your Blog' post and ask people to say whether they want a basic listing or a paragraph-style listing. The iDea Labs listing could be of the latter sort.

Here are the latest blogs added to the directory:

Big Blue Wave

iDea Labs

Shutter View

T3G:2

The View From Yokkaichi

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Well, this has been fun even though I had trouble with this blog's email account today. I got that fixed and added a whole bunch of new blogs. I would like to thank everyone for participating and giving me feedback. I have thought about this project for a long time and it is nice to see it starting to happen. Please check your listings and let me know how it looks.

Thanks, Leon

The View From Yokkaichi

The View From Yokkaichi

http://jdcb42.livejournal.com

Description: A journal, photo story and photo blog about my life in Japan, where I'm working as an English teacher.

Nicharalambous.com

Blog Name: Nicharalambous.com

Blog URL: http://www.nicharalambous.com/

Description: The blog of a South African Journalist and entrepreneur. I like to talk about technology, photography, media, music, life, love and everything in between.

T3G:2

T3G:2

www.t-e-g.co.uk

The inner thoughts and deep reflections of a twentysomething technical support analyst

iDea Labs

Blog Name: iDea Labs

Blog URL: http://ashish-sinha.blogspot.com

iDea Labs covers the interesting happening in the world of web 2.0 products. Right from covering interesting products/reviews to advice on career related issues.

Big Blue Wave

Blog Name: Big Blue Wave

Blog Url: http://www.bluewavecanada.blogspot.com

Description: A Catholic, pro-life social conservative blog.

Sidebar Links

I have added some sidebar links to useful websites and blogs. Some of the links are specific to Blogger (Blogger Buzz for example) but most of them are not.

Most of the sites are listed because they provide useful information for bloggers. For news stories one can check Google News and this may lead to a post. If you need information on a movie or a band check IMdb or allmusic. I have found all of the sites listed useful in the past.

The Canadian Blog Exchange "is a linker... with a twist - everyone participates in filing useful posts in relevant categories, and in this way a history is built up."*. It is a good place to list a Canadian blog or to find interesting blogs to read. I have gotten some blog traffic from the site.

The Blog Herald offers news related to blogs and blogging. The information can be both interesting and inspiring.

Blog Search is a useful tool for finding blogs to read. The advanced features can allow very specific searches.

Resources

I have added a separate link list for blog resources. I will list websites or blogs that provide tools specific to blogging. Visitor counters, games, and several other types of gadgets may be listed.

Google Gadgets has a number of gagets you can add to websites or blogs. I tested Google Fight and posted about it at Firemind. I added a game to my template at Braindance.

Keeping Count

I had an idea today for another 'reserved Label'. # will be added to the Labels used in each listing. That way I will have an idea of the total number of blogs listed in BBD. It will be a 'free label' and not count towards the maximum number of ten.

Introducing: BBD Blog

I will be writing about blogs and blogging occasionally. I like to blog and am very interested in blogging as a hobby and as a phemomenum. Blogging here also helps the directory aspect of this site. First of all it keeps BBD current and thus fulfills one of the criteria for being listed. Secondly the information posted here will be useful to some readers.

I have been involved in many aspects of blogging and online community-building. I admin several groupblogs and I also maintained a blogger resource blog.

Here are two blogs related to blogging:

Blog Links - resources for bloggers.

The Demo Blog - a group blog where members help members learn blogging.

Some of the information in "Blog Links" will be updated and incorporated into this blog. I may revive "The Demo Blog" if a Blogger user needs help with their blog and asks to join TDB.

I just added another blog to the listing. I checked out "The fun portal" and find it interesting.

Update: I ask for a reciprocal link from the blogs I list. Should it be mandatory?

The fun portal

The fun portal is all about entertainment. Cartoons, games, music movies and everything that I do when I`m bored-well there rarely is a time when i`m bored because of all these things!