About Me: My Blogging History

I live in Victoria, BC, Canada and have a mundane offline life. I will mention that I enjoy playing computer games, reading, and volunteering.

I have been blogging since early 2003. I read We Blog (by Bausch , Haughey, and Hourihan) and knew I wanted to blog.

Victoria Update

I created Victoria Update on March 04, 2003. Here is part of the introductory post:

Victoria Update Email Newsletter began as an infrequent series of emails from the Student Rights Project to agencies and individuals interested in our symposium. On June 11, 2002 I reworked the newsletter and began publishing on the 15th and 30th of each month. Currently Victoria Update is distributed by email across Canada and to England.

Victoria Update's purpose is to "Promote education and communication within the Mental Health Community". I hope that the weblog version of Victoria Update continues to fulfill this purpose.

The 'weblog version' never caught on. Part of the problem was that our project was winding down and there was no incentive to build another readership base. The blog was a fun place for me to experiment and learn. I tried to revive Victoria Update in 2004 but found that it just wasn't working. I let the blog die but never deleted it.

Firemind

In June of 2003 I was ready to try something different. I wanted some privacy so I used a pseudonym and chose another platform. Firemind started at Diaryland and was eventually transferred (by hand!) to Blogger. It is my personal blog and has over 1100 posts. It is a showcase of good and bad blogging techniques. I'll let you decide which post fits which category.

The Demo Blog

A call for help at Flickr began an interesting period of my blogging life. The Demo Blog was a teaching blog and it worked quite well. The blog became the focus of a community of bloggers. We shared ideas, read each other's blogs, and participated in Our Photoblog. Some of the people involved in that project joined other group blogs I managed. Some of them are still friends.

A Passion For Blogging

Big Blog Directory is the latest in a series of blogging experiments. It too involves me trying to find new ways to express myself and build a community of bloggers.

I blog because I enjoy writing and sharing my ideas with others. Blogging allows me to interact with people from all over the world. This blog allows me to help new bloggers and spotlight veterans who are doing interesting things.

I am not an expert who claims to know everything. I am just someone with a passion for blogging who likes to share ideas.

Leon

EclecticBlogs

Blog Name: EclecticBlogs

Blog URL: http://martin.eclecticblogs.ca

Description: A little bit about anything and everything that appeals to me. Regular game posts on Edmonton Oiler hockey games and Manchester United soccer games. Features include Blog of the Week, Quote of the Week and Words on Wednesday. Digital photography of Inuvik and now Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.

Adding A Copyright Notice To Your Site Feed

I added this copyright information to my site feed:

Big Blog Directory is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

To add a footer you have to go Settings > Site Feed and set "Allow Blog Feed" to "Full".

Here is a screenshot:



Update: this is what the feed looks like in Google Reader.

the wonderful world inside my mind aka Miauland

Blog name: The wonderful world inside my mind aka Miauland

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

Description: Miauland is a small portrait of the inside of my mind. It includes my passions of art, drawing, animation and the people who I admire, along with my pet hates.

New Listings 5

These are the blogs that were listed from Jan 25th to today. It has been an exciting month of discovery for me. I have to check all the blogs. :)

Brian Cormier's Blogtastic World

RedRag blog

Post Awards

Russian Adoption Journal

2Dolphins

The People History

South African Rugby

South African Cricket Scene

SA Rocks

Motivation

Popped Culture

Excribidinglish

Knitting Through Life

The Life and Times of an Endoscopy Technician

Andy's Blog

JENRIKS24hphoetry

Blind Sight is 20/20

somewhatsane

The Media Nook

Flotsam and Jetsam

Brian Cormier's Blogtastic World

Blog Name: Brian Cormier's Blogtastic World

Blog URL: http://briancormier.blogspot.com (www.briancormier.com is pointed to the blogspot address)

Description: Brian Cormier is a writer, columnist and communications consultant. He writes "Hump Day" -- a weekly humour/general interest column currently running exclusively in the Moncton Times & Transcript (Moncton, New Brunswick Canada). Brian is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

In his blog Brian comments on news items, delivers (hopefully) witty observations on life and the world around us, reminds those in their 40s of some retro memories, and talks about pop culture and entertainment.

Testing Blogotion

Blogotion is a nice looking directory with interesting blogs. I decided to submit BBD this morning and added a link to the site in the Affiliations section of the sidebar. Without a link it could take 2 months(!) to get reviewed and listed.

BBD still hasn't been listed at Globe of Blogs. Now two sites are getting free advertising from me.

Update: Link removed April 3.

Quick Blog Search

View All Blogs

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(click on 'older posts' at the bottom of each page to see more listings.)

View Alphanumerically By Blog Name

0-9
abc
def
ghi
jkl
mno
pqr
stu
vwx
yz

Coming March 1: Canadian Blogs Roundup

BBD's first roundup of Canadian blogs is coming March 1st, 2007.

It will feature Canadian blog resources and Canadian blogs listed in Big Blog Directory.

The South African Blog Roundup is scheduled for March 15 and is being co-ordinated with another blog.

Featured Feed And Changes To Submissions

The new featured feed is "A designer's ramblings". Check it out and leave Peter a comment.

Submission Changes

I have been debating whether to make reciprocal links mandatory. One part of me thinks that "your submission = my content" so no other "payment' is needed. That is fine if you don't care whether your submission actually sends you traffic. I could just collect links and not worry what they are. I don't want this blog to be a dumping ground for links.

I see Big Blog Directory as a place where visitors can find interesting blogs to read. I like to promote new blogs and recognize established blogs with great content. I am not trying to get a high pagerank or anything like that.

If I list your blog I may send someone who becomes a regular reader and contributes to discussion in comments. I hope that someone visiting your blog may find their way to this one. This blog may not be what they are looking for but, then again, it might. Let your readers know you list here.

Making reciprocal links optional seemed like a good idea at the time. Most blog directories require links to their site before a blog is listed. Since starting BBD I have found many blogs that add required links but don't link here.

So far the "reward" for linking has been becoming a "featured blog". That has only been 'featured feeds" but more things will becoming. Ideally all of the blogs listed in BBD should be treated equally. I don't want a two-tiered system.

Linking in WordPress and Blogger is very easy. Normally there is no reason not to link.

Submission Changes:

1. Links to BBD are now mandatory for new listings.
2. If there is a reason your blog cannot link to BBD let me know. I will make exceptions if needed.
3. When you send in your submission tell me where I can find the link.

How To Link To Big Blog Directory

Text Links

Blogger and most other programs can automatically make text links. Previously we had to write out code like this:

<a href="http://bigblogdir.blogspot.com/">Big Blog Directory</a>

...to produce a text link like this:

Big Blog Directory

Text links to BBD are fine. Please remember to use the full name.

Image Links

Using images to link to BBD is easy once you get the hang of it.

An image link usually consists of a button with a symbol and/or some text. The image is uploaded to Blogger or another server just like any other image or photograph.



http://photos1.blogger.com/
blogger2/1176/373809733834064/320/button1..png

The code above is the URL (or address) of the image. I called this one "button1." Blogger added a lot of information which I removed. The URL is all I needed.

To make the button a click-able link you need to set it up like this:

<a href="http://bigblogdir.blogspot.com"><img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/
blogger2/1176/373809733834064/320/button1..png"/></a>

The code above produces an image link to Big Blog Directory:



Here is a different style of button you may use:



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jA33IGKDuBw/Rd1-4LBNONI/AAAAAAAAALg/
V0Fw_4Mau8U/s320/BBDbannersmall.jpg

These are my 'standard' buttons. You can also use the ones on my BBD Buttons page.

In most cases it is best to copy the image to your computer then upload it to your blog. If you are really stuck use the image URL I supply.

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Because of the length of the image URLs in the above examples I have had to break them up between lines. Copy the code below and insert the image URL.

<a href="http://bigblogdir.blogspot.com"><img src="IMAGE URL"/></a>

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Note: The blue button was made with Banner Maker.

Effort And Recognition

No blogger exists in a vacuum even though it seems like it sometimes. We plug away doing our best and don't receive comments or get stuff like: "Nice blog. Visit my blog at...".

Eventually we get a regular who links to us and we link back to. If we are lucky most of our readers and linkers will be like that. Otherwise we get people who never say anything until we quit posting for a while. They wonder where we went to and demand we update. We wonder where they were when we felt alone.

Comments can feel like rewards for writing a good post. We must remember, however, that they are more concerned with communication and interaction. Comments may be used to criticise a post. They can also be meaningless. It can be a sad shock to find out your very first comment is spam.

There are ways to tell a blogger that a post was interesting. You can leave a comment or send an email saying why you liked their post. You can also nominate them for awards.

Blog Awards are a tradition as old as blogging. They are numerous and varied. I have been thinking of co-operating with an 'awards blog' because they can encourage new bloggers and help get people interacting.

Recently I came across Post Awardsand liked what I saw. The blogger and I exchanged emails and ideas. Post Awards became BBD's 60th blog to be listed.

Our blogs are independent of each other but we have common ground. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on our blogs and on the blogs of those we interact with.

Post Awards

Blog Name: Post Awards

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

Description: Post Awards gives recognition to great blog posts everyday!

What is BBD News?

BBD News is a Google Reader page that mixes posts from Big Blog Directory and featured blogs.

The posts will change periodically but won't be as dynamic as the Featured Blog Feed.

Featured Blog Feed

Big Blog Directory's Featured Blog Feed changes regularly and appears on the blog.

You can find all of the blog feeds at BBD Blog Feeds.

Feeds And Maps

Featured Feeds

Walter's Philosophical Sounding Board and numerous et cetera replaces 3JobBlog as the featured feed. The URL of Walter's listing was so long I couldn't use it in the feed title.

Visitor Log Map

I saw an interesting visitor map on a blog I was browsing. I created one for this blog and put a link in the sidebar. It should take about a day for statistics to start showing up. I used an html/javascript page element for the code.

Updates And Link Fixing

I updated the previous post and the Blog Finding Resources page. I also updated the Blogger Tips link in the sidebar and it works again.

I also added a "Rate My Blog" link to the sidebar. It will take you to one of the sites BBD is listed with. If you like this blog give it a try.

More BBD Promotion

I listed BBD with Globe Of Blogs on Saturday and Super Blog Directory yesterday.

Globe Of Blogs

When I wanted to promote one of my group blogs (Our Photoblog) I looked at several directories. I didn't like many of the sites for various reasons. Globe Of Blogs was available and had a good reputation. I listed the blog.

I revisited GOB and the site still appealed to me. Old blogs are not removed, unless the link gets broken, but categories didn't seem full of dead blogs. Registration was easy and only required a valid email address. Furthermore, linking to the site is optional. (I linked anyway.)

Super Blog Directory

I found this site by accident when checking another directory. It looked interesting and I found myself exploring the site and the blogs listed there.

The site is well designed and looks nice. The only confusing thing is related to the 'Submit' button at the top of the page. When you decide to submit your blog and click there it says:

To submit your site, browse to the category that best fits your blog and click on the submit link.

I looked all over for another submit button. There is none. When you are in the category you wish to submit your blog to click on the SAME submit button at the top of the page. You will go to an almost identical page with a form at the bottom to fill out. This is unintuitive and needs to be fixed.

I had a problem when I finished filling out the form. I made a mistake and I had to copy the 'captcha' image again but it wouldn't reset when I hit my browser's back button. Luckily refreshing the page fixed that problem but didn't erase my work.

The basic listing is free and doesn't require a link. I added a button (Top Blogs) to my sidebar. I may change it to a text link using "Super Blog Directory".

I will update this post when BBD is listed in these directories.

More Blog Directory Reviews

I wanted to review the directories I am submitting to because visitors will see the links in my sidebar. I want people to know that the directories aren't being promoted but they are being tested.

I won't test everything and won't review sites I don't use for this blog.

For more reviews visit A Blog for Bloggers - Blog Directories Reviews. I find the blog interesting and informative.

Update: 5:12 am, Feb. 19 - Super Blog Directory has listed BBD already! Here is the link. I am pleased with the site and recommend it.
Update 2: My submission issue with Super Blog Directoy has been fixed.
Update 3: June 11/07 - I removed the link to Globe Of Blogs since BBD is still not listed. A five month wait is outrageous.

More Directories Added

I have added a number of Asian and African blog directories to the Blog Finding Resources page. I also added some International sites and a Museum Blog Directory.

i will add more later today and I may change the name of the section.

Blog Finding Resources

This is a list of blogs, blog aggregators, and blog directories. It's purpose is to help people find blogs to read.

I have selected smaller less known websites because the big directories can be found easily. Furthermore, these smaller sites are often better maintained than the 'mega' sites.

I will be updating this list fairly often. I have several sites to check out to fill the blank sections.

Directories listing BBD are marked with (L).

Updated: June 11/07

Africa/Asia:

Amatomu - "tracks the South African blogosphere".

Afrigator - is a social media aggregator and directory for African blogs.

Best Of The Arab Blogs

Blog Africa

Desi Blogs - Indian Blog Directory.

Kenyan Blogs Aggregator - there is a list of member blogs in the sidebar.

Australia/Pacific:

AustralianBlogs.com.au

The Australian Index

Europe:

International:

2000 Bloggers - an eclectic mix of blogs.

Blog Catalog (L)

Expat-blog - worldwide expatriate blog directory.

Global Voices Online - serves as "an international community of bloggers who want to communicate with the broader world." Check out the blog and the World Blog Aggregator.

Globe Of Blogs - See review.

Miscellaneous:

Best Blog on WordPress - a blog review site for WordPress.com.

The Creative Blog Directory - not all of the blogs listed are linked. Overall the listed blogs are current and the site is being updated.

Garden Blog Directory

Gardening Blog Directory

Gay Blog Directory

Mr Joe Blog's Blog! - has many interviews with bloggers.

Museum Blogs - a museum and exhibit blog directory.

Photarium - a blog directory that uses tags to classify blogs. See review. (L)

SOB A-Z Directory - Successful Blog's list of outstanding blogs. (L)

Sports Blogs

Super Blog Directory - find blogs by subject. See review.(L)

North America:

BC Bloggers - is a blog aggregator and directory for British Columbians.

BC Blogs - is an aggregator and blogroll of (mostly) political blogs. The sidebar has a comprehensive collection of regional and political blog aggregators and blogrolls.

Opinions Canada

SoCon Blogs - a Canadian social conservative blog aggregator.

The Canadian Blog Exchange - a very active site. Many, but not all, of the blogs are political. (L)

Religious:

Catholic Blog Directory - over 900 blogs.

JRants.com - a Jewish and Israeli blog aggregator.

South America:

Urban:

Metroblogging - an international network of urban blogs.

Russian Adoption Journal

Blog Name: Russian Adoption Journal

Blog URL: http://www.2dolphins.com/rajblog.html

Description: Russian Adoption Journal is an account of our efforts to adopt a child from Russia.

2Dolphins

Blog Name: 2Dolphins

Blog URL: http://www.2dolphins.com

Description: 2Dolphins is a personal website that is a journal and virtual scrapbook for photos of friends & family, travels, dolphin-related information, and other interests. This site also serves as home to our new Russian Adoption Journal.

Feeds And Blogs

Featured Blog Feeds

The feed is now found at the bottom of the page so that it doesn't interfere with other blog listings. There is a link at the top of each page.

Andy's Blog was the first featured feed from Wednesday to today. Now Youra Blog will be featured. I will alternate like this until I get through the list at least once.

Blogs

I have found a number of interesting regional blogs and a religious blog directory. I will be reviewing the directory soon. I will post a blog roundup this week.

Label Editing Is Done

Finally! I have turned multi-word labels into hyphenated words, changed all labels to lowercase, and deleted/edited others.

Hopefully the blog feed wasn't causing too many problems.

Current Labels L-Z

These are the current labels in use. These are "official". Stick to this format when submitting labels.

See also: Current Labels 0-9 And A-K and Labels.

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learn-english, life-style, lightroom, local, lymphoma, lyrics

media, memories, merchandise, mexico, military, mlm, mno, movies, music, musicblog, musicvideos, my-art

narcism, national, netherlands, new-zealand, news, nhl, nordic, norway, nostalgia,

odi, online-life, opinion,

personal, pet-portraits, phoetry, photoblog, photography, photos, photoshop, podcasts, poetry, politics, portuguese, positive-promotion, posters, pro20-cricket, problems,

quotes,

rawshooter, real, recipes, regional, relationships, religion, residence-life, restaurants, reviews, rugby, rumours

sa-cricket, seasons, seattle, serious, sex, shopping, short-stories, society, solutions, south-africa, spanish, spirituality, sports, super-14,

teaching, tech,technology, teen, trade, tradition, travel, tv,

uk, university, usa,

victoria, videos, vintage, virginia,

web-2.0, weblogs, weight-loss, work, writing,

yarn, yokkaichi

---

You are not limited to these labels but it is a good idea to use some of them. Pick a few good common words that describe your blog and then add one or two others. I allow up to ten labels but most people don't need that many.

Try to look at the labels like someone who doesn't know your blog. Ask yourself if the label would make you read the blog. Unique or odd labels can work but if a reader clicks on the label and feels misled they probably won't check out your blog.

Current Labels 0-9 And A-K

These are the current labels in use. These are "official". Stick to this format when submitting labels.

See also: Current Labels L-Z and Labels.

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30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s,

accommodations, adoption, advice, agloco, animal-art, answers, art, australia

blogdirectory, blogging, blogs, bohemian, books, british-columbia

canada, cancer, carrots, cartoons, cats, chihuahuas, china, community, computer-games, crafts, creative, cricket, culture, currie-cup,

daily, decorating, design, diary, directory, disabled, diversity, dogs,

education, english, essays, europe, events, experimental,

family, fantasy, fantasyhockey, fat, film, fledgling, flickr, food, french-finds, friends, fun-with-english,

games, gauteng, general-malaise, german, gifts, girl-stuff, groupblog, guests, gypsy

health, history, hockey, hodgkins, holiday, howto,

imatch, india, international, internet

japan, johannesburg,

knitting

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You are not limited to these labels but it is a good idea to use some of them. Pick a few good commnon words that describe your blog and then add one or two others. I allow up to ten labels but most people don't need that many.

Try to look at the labels like someone who doesn't know your blog. Ask yourself if the label would make you read the blog. Unique or odd labels can work but if a reader clicks on the label and feels misled they probably won't check out your blog.

The People History

Blog Name: The People History

Blog URL: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/VisitorsMemories.html

Description: The People History is a place where people, memories, and history join together to create an online social history from events and experiences in People's Lives.

South African Cricket Scene

Blog Name: South African Cricket Scene

Blog URL: http://cricketza.com

Description: A blog about Cricket in SA

Editing Labels

I am having a headache editing some labels so I will be saving some blogs as draft for a while. Gosh, I sound like Blogger help now. :)

Blog Directory: Photarium

I am testing a blog directory called Photarium and have added it to the Find Blogs Online section of my sidebar. I have found some interesting blogs at the site and haven't found any dead links or spam yet.

Submitting a blog is very easy and all you need is an email address. You get to pick three tags (labels) which are used to find your blog.

I submitted BBD quite late on Wednesday (7th). It hasn't appeared on the site yet so I can't say how long submissions take to process.

I will update this post when BBD is listed.

Update: I found my listing on February 10th. The only change was to my tags. I supplied blog-directory, blogs, and blogging. Blog-directory was changed to directory. That is fine.

Update: Submission Guidelines And Coming Events

Submission Guidelines - draft. Feedback is appreciated.

The "Submit Your Blog" page will be updated soon. Basically I am tightening up labels, adding a link to a copyright page, and working on a reciprocal links policy.

Labels:

Minimum = 1. Maximum = 10. I will add 2 Admin Labels.

Labels can describe your content or your location or both.

Avoid similar or repetitive labels. For example don't list every dog breed you have or every subcategory of your hobby.

Avoid labels with more than one word if possible. The label editor prefers one label over another and this makes it difficult to apply new labels or edit old ones. With the number of labels in use BBD this can be a headache.

Blogger Labels can be searched using Technorati (for example) and that may bring traffic to BBD but that is secondary to making it easier to navigate this blog.

Reciprocal Links:

For various reasons linking back to BBD may not be possible so links are optional. As this blog grows I may have to make it mandatory. If you already link to other blog directories then please link to me.

A submission provides me with content and you with a listing and some publicity. If you link back to me you get more support such as being the subject of an article or interview.

New question for Submit Your Blog page: Do you wish your blog's site feed to be posted on BBD Blog Feeds? (This requires a link.)

"Dual" Submissions:

Your blog listing is classed a content and copyright protected. My Creative Commons licence is by -nc - nd. ND means no derivatives so anyone copying the listing cannot change it in anyway.

Suggestion: Don't copy a blog listing.

No Derivatives also means people may have similar ideas to mine but they cannot take my content and change it without permission.

Rule: If someone else starts a Blogger based directory that uses labels to categorize blogs you may not submit a listing that I have published.

If the blog owner contacts me and wants a blog removed I will remove the listing. The listing I published is still copyright protected. Go ahead and promote your blog. Just don't do it at my expense.

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Coming Events:

Canadian Blogs Roundup, South African Blogs Roundup (March?), and possibly features on Photography Blogs and Blogger Hacks.

Fiction Blogs And Ethics

I came across a blog today that got me thinking. I could tell that it was fiction because it was written in the third person. What bothered me was that the blogger had created a profile for the character and could easily turn it into a mock blog. The blogger was ethical however, and told readers that the blog was fiction.

The very nature of blogging allows us to play with our realities. We can change our identities and create 'history' by manipulating post options. This is power and it can be abused. We must be responsible and ensure that no one is hurt by what we write.

Reference: Fake Blog? --- Valse Blog?

Recommended Reading

These are posts from my blog that I think visitors will find useful and informative. They will cover blogging topics that are general in nature and should appeal to everyone regardless of what blog program they use.

Blogging: Your First Five Steps

Fiction Blogs And Ethics

Reporting Spam Blogs

The New Face Of Spamblogs Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Featured Blog Feeds

I will be adding feeds from selected blogs to the top of BBD's main post area. I may move it to another spot later, and add a link to it from the sidebar, if I find it too intrusive.

I will be changing the blogs Wednesdays and Sundays at first and then once a week later on. Blogs will be featured in (mostly) alphabetical order.

Only the blogs listed at BBD Blog Feeds will be featured for now. If you would like your blog featured add a link to BBD to your sidebar and/or mention this blog in a post.

SA Rocks

Blog Name: SA Rocks

Blog URL: http://www.sarocks.co.za

Description:
SA Rocks is not a website dedicated to blindly praising South Africa. We here at sarocks.co.za understand that every country has flaws and we do not deny the flaws of South Africa. We do feel that there are enough people who berate our country and it's time for people to start acting and thinking positively about South Africa.

Please feel free to send your idea of what a Rocking SA is.

Motivation

Blog Name: Motivation

Blog URL: http://www.howardgrill.blogspot.com

Description: A blog discussing thoughts, ideas, and writings about photography. I focus on the creative aspects of the medium.

Popped Culture

Blog Name: Popped Culture

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

Description: A life viewed through the lens of entertainment. It's a pop culture world, I just live in it.

Subscribe To BBD With Feedblitz

FeedBlitz turns blog (and other) feeds into emails which are sent to subscribers. It is a simple and effective way to monitor what is happening in a blog. I use Feedblitz myself to subscribe to blogs.

As you can see in this sample preview I chose to send only a portion of each post. I wanted to notify readers of new content but not clog up email with long posts and images. Furthermore, the emails don't include the post labels which are an important part of the blog listings.

You can find the subscription form in the sidebar.

Reporting Spam Blogs

Spam blogs are a pain for both bloggers and blog readers. Blog comments can get swamped with crap and "splogs" clog up search engines and directories.

Bloggers can use word verification or equivalent to stop automated spam comments. One thing they shouldn't do is link to the splog and write something like "I hate these spam blogs! Avoid www.spamblog.blogspot.com!!". This just helps the spammers.

If you do find a spam blog you can report it to search engines and blog services.

Google has page called Report a Spam Result. Other services should have something similar.

Many Blogger blogs have a "flag blog" button in the Navbar at the top of each page. Visitors can "flag" a spam blog and when it is reviewed it will be deleted.

"Flagging" works if the navbar hasn't been deleted or the blog doesn't redirect the visitor to another site. If either of these is a problem visit "Report a spam blog".

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Note: Blogger's automated spam catching features can cause problems. This happened to me and it took a while to fix.

Say Hello To Your Visitors

With IP2Phrase you can add customizable welcome messages to your blog. The code is dynamic and detects the visitors location.

Here is what I see:



Go to the website and choose a phrase or make your own. Copy the code into a html/javascript widget.

Introducing BBD Blog Feeds

BBD Blog Feeds is a blog feed aggregator for Big Blog Directory. It uses the "Feed" page element to show the titles of recent posts from selected blogs.



I created the site for two reasons:

1. BBD has many interesting blogs, and several appeal to me, but I don't have the time to visit them all. I wanted a way to quickly check the blogs.
2. It allows me to promote the blogs that link to BBD.

Linking to BBD

Linking to BBD is optional but appreciated. By not making a link mandatory when I started BBD I was able to build up the directory faster. Bloggers benefitted by getting listed quickly and easily. BBD benefitted by having lots of new content.

Some bloggers linked to me using sidebar text links or buttons. Some have also mentioned BBD in posts. I appreciate this extra effort.

BBD Blog Feeds is a 'reward' for linking to this blog. When BBD Spotlight is introduced it may be restricted to blogs that link back to BBD. My goal isn't to create a 'two-tier' blog directory. I want people to participate a little in the promotion of their blogs.

Selecting Blogs For BBD Blog Feeds

I visited every blog listed in Big Blog Directory and looked for links to this blog. I also searched the blog posts using Blogger's 'search blog' feature (or equivalent). If I found a link I checked for a site feed. A few blogs didn't have working site feeds so I couldn't include them.

Visit BBD Blog Feeds and look around. You may find something interesting to read.

Knitting Through Life

Blog name: Knitting Through Life

URL: http://zoesmomdebbie.blogspot.com

Description: My ramblings about my knitting and thoughts on life in general.

Changes To Labels

I made a list of all the labels used in BBD. My goal was to see what problems I could find before things got out of hand.

There are roughly 200 labels being used right now. 50 are for admin purposes or BBD Blog. The other 150 labels are used to categorize 49 blogs. BBD is growing and as the number of listed blogs grows so will the number of labels in use. I don't want to dictate how bloggers should label their blogs but I will have to establish some rules.

The screenshot below shows the current set of labels sorted by frequency.



Here are some things I noticed:

• Some labels are confusing or even misleading when not viewed in the context of the blog description.
• Some bloggers use too many similar labels when one or two will do. The labels in BBD are used to navigate this blog first and show up in search engines second.
• Using a blog's title or the blogger's name as labels in BBD seems unnecessary.

What am I going to do? I am going to redo my Labels page and use some more standardization. I will also write up some guidelines and one or two rules.

Why am I doing this? I want allow bloggers to define their blogs in their words, not mine, but I also want to keep things manageable.

Andy's Blog

Blog Name: Andy's Blog

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

Description: The ongoings in the life of Andrew Isaac. Blog includes updates on his fight with Hodgkins disease and other health related aspects of cancer in younger people. Also, his takes on politics, sports, and news in the Detroit Metro area. Food and restaurant reviews will be included on a monthy basis.

JENRIKS24hphoetry

Blog Name: JENRIKS24hphoetry

Blog URL: http://www.jenriks.de

Description: JENRIKS is a daily updated photoblog, running since January 1, 2006. That's already more than a year of successful everyday posting! 2007 comes with guest appearances of other photographers and some more extras.

Widget Permalink Hack

After I changed the style of my Labels Widget I didn't want people to look all over the blog trying to find it. I thought permalinks might be a solution but didn't know what to look for. I looked at some blogs using the idea and saw the solution.

Each widget has a unique name and is written as "widget id= [widget name]". Here is the Labels Widget:



The name of the widget in the screenshot is Label1. To link to the widget you need to set up the link like this:

<a href="#[widget name]"></a>

Replace [widget name] with the name of the widget you wish to link to. Use an html/javascript widget to place the link in the sidebar.



You can use this hack for any widget. Check out this blog for more ideas.

"Paragraph Style" Labels Hack

BBD uses a lot of labels. Each blog submitted uses labels supplied by the blogger and I add some administrative ones. I also label the posts I write. The number of labels is growing exponentially.

The Labels Widget in the sidebar was becoming too long. Blogger uses unordered lists (<ul> <li></li> </ul>) to manage labels so the easiest solution was to find the template section I needed and remove the <li> and </li> markers. Doing so changed the list into a paragraph.

The labels paragraph changes to fit the location the widget is placed in. It is wider if placed in the footer and narrower in the sidebar. Now my labels are more manageable.

The image below shows the section of the template that has to be changed. Always backup your template before making changes.



Thanks to Belle for the idea.