The MyBlogLog Blog

Some widget love using the MyBlogLog API

OK, so this might just be the pretty much the most rad thing I have ever seen. Using the MyBlogLog API, check out what MBL member KeyJ63 created! 

At first glance it looks like our normal run of the mill Recent Reader widget. You got your recent visitors, a link to join the community and all that jazz. But oh? What is this community tab up top?  Clicking on that will pop up an entire screen of awesome.

So in the center there you got your blog community, surrounded by the community’s most recent readers. And from each of those readers, you can see the blog communities they are a member of, and follow the paths and you can find the blogs that your readers have in common.

But the hotness doesn’t stop there. Not only can you drag around the readers and blogs around the screen, go ahead and try double clicking on any of the icons. As if by magic the whole thing mixes up and arranges everything to focus on the selected reader or blog. And if that is not enough, select a reader and up springs a site bio, or select blog and a little window appears and shows you the Alexa page rank and traffic stats.  I don’t know about you, but I am definitely super impressed!

Kudos! You totally rock!

Million Dollar Marketing Campaign Paying Off

This screenshot from twitter was sent in by the ever-watchful Greg Cohn. A quick check with the MyBlogLog team and we determined it was not one of us that Sean spotted on the local trolley. Hmmm, wonder which of our fans was out there, spreading the good word?

If you have stories of MyBlogLog sightings, share them in the comments below.

Color Me Widgets

Sometimes you want just the perfect hue for your sidebar widget and no matter how much you play around, you just can't seem to get it quite right. You know who you are, copy-paste-publish-refresh, copy-paste-publish-refresh, over and over until you get things just so.

Today, I stumbled across thinlight.org who has glued together the MyBlogLog Recent Reader JavaScript code with mooRainbow color picker to come up with an interactive color picker where you can not only pick from the full spectrum of available colors, you can also see your choices interactively as you fiddle around.

MyBlogLog Widget Colorer, very cool. Check it out.

Hot Member: Leo Gartsbeyn

Our latest Hot Member earned his place in the spotlight by trouncing everyone in the MyBlogLog Problogger Contest. Known for his RSS feed directory site, Feedest.com, it should be noted that Leo had not one but two community profiles in the running.

In addition to his winning entry, his, "trash can art" blog doodlage blog placed a respectable 11th. We especially like the  post poking fun at the default gray Yahoo avatars which was all part of Leo's grand plan to win the contest as he details in his blog post, How to Win a Contest. Case Study.

Join the Feedest community here.

Hot Member: Slyvisions

If you are looking for a way to make yourself feel old, check out Sly at slyvisions.com.  He's a 16 year old blogger who is kicking ass and taking names!

First of all, my name is Sly Blanco and I am a part-time blogger. To me blogging isn't really a career or job, but it's something ANYBODY can and should do. Slyvisions.com was originally made in April of 2007 as graphic-requesting site. As it went on though, I noticed that not a lot of people were requesting anything or nobody visited the site at all. Then I started reading blogs on how to make money online from websites. It was at that point that I wanted to start a blog myself. My focus for this site is not to make money online (since I'm just a student), but to share tips and tricks on just about anything in my knowledge.

If you have a few dollars, give him a hand towards his goal.  If not, you should at least check out his blog.  I promise you'd never guess he was a teenager from the quality of his writing. 

Good luck on your goal Sly, we're all rooting for you!

Join His Community - Slyvisions
Leave him a message - Sly

I found out about Sly's goal because he sent me an email back in July.  Are you a potential Hot Member? If so, send me an email and let me know why.  robyn at mybloglog.com

Hot Member: Easton Ellsworth

The hardest working blogger in blogbusiness, Easton Ellsworth is this week's Hot Member.  Besides being absolutely adorable, this blog master is the go-to guy for business bloggers.  He's also a devoted husband and work-at-home dad, even though he looks waaaay too young to be a father!

Easton is a blog network editor over at Know More Media, a business blogging network with a healthy appreciation for Pez, Star Wars and fun.  He also writes the very-successful Business BlogWire, which is one of the most linked-to business blogs out there.  Easton's got a passion for blogging and a real talent at community building.

I've been honored to work directly with Easton on several projects, including a Fortune 500 blogging wiki that got some major coverage.  When Easton told me a few weeks ago that he was again looking to hire bloggers, I knew it was time I introduced him to all of you.  So, take some time to check out Easton's profile and his blog.  As always, if you have a suggestion for a future Hot Member, tag them as Hot Member and let me know about it via email.

Hot Member: Schnaars

One of the coolest people I've met since my move out to San Fran, Scott Schnaars, is this week's Hot Member.  Besides being just an all-around great guy, he's also got an incredible story (plus, he's got 2 of the most adorable kids in the world, and coming from a gal with 4 of the most adorable kids of the world, that's saying alot).

Scott's wife, Holly, was diagnosed with cancer and he's been sharing their story with the world via Hope for Holly.  An excerpt from one of his latest posts, about a few nights sans kids:

Like our Hawaii vacation, this one was cancer free. Like Hawaii, if the subject comes up, it is simply This Silliness. As in ‘Once This Silliness is over, we will take a long vacation.’ or ‘I’m tired of This Silliness and I don’t feel well.’

Right now, This Silliness is causing some major problems. The side effects of chemotherapy have been less than pleasant. Holly has been experiencing major stomach cramps and more than a bit of neuropathy, but still remains insanely positive and upbeat about beating This Silliness. We know that we will. We know that we are winning this fight. Unfortunately, This Silliness has gotten some punches in during this round.

Knuckle Sandwich, another of Scott's blogs, is also a fab read that just really makes you feel like you know him, even if you aren't lucky enough to do so in RL (real life).   As well, if you want to take a stroll through what it's like to full-scale tear out and remodel your home, Scott's Home is something you'll want to see as well.

I can't recommend their sites enough, especially if you have a loved one struggling with cancer (and sadly, who doesn't?).   Visit Scott's personal profile and leave him a message. 

If you have a suggestion for a future Hot Member, please let me know at robyn@mybloglog.com.

Where Santa Hangs During the Summer

It's a little early to be thinking of what you want for Christmas but when you do, now you know where to go! Don't be surprised if you find Santa showing up in your Recent Reader roll. He's *always* checking his list of who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus member page on MyBlogLog

Harness Group Intelligence, MyBlogLog Firefox Plugin

Our man SuperRaJJ in Jeddah whipped up a MyBlogLog Firefox Search Plugin. With the recent addition of tags to the search results The results are getting better by the day. Looking for sites about the environment, aviation, or cycling? Now you can check out search right from your browser chrome or for you keyboard shortcut junkies, <ctrl - k>.

Guest Post: Unlocking the Social Inner Circle Code

By Andrew Wee

I probably clear hundreds of blog comments and MyBlogLog comments on a daily basis. The reason? Falling foul of "schmoe" rules.

Schmoe, in case you're not familiar yet, refers to a "social media optimizer" gone wrong, a nice term for someone who tries to game the social networking system. A schmoe schmoes up when their comments is deleted. And even though it might take all of 20 seconds to block copy and paste your comments on a strangers profile, it's still time wasted.

Want to up your Social Networking skills? Here's a primer.

The Social Inner Circle Code

It helps to be familiar with humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (check out: Do what you love, love what you do. 

Maslow is one of the granddaddies of the theories now taught by motivational gurus like Anthony Robbins, T. Harv Eker and the like.

Breaking into the social circle requires that you provide value to:
1) The blogger
2) The blogger's community

Value is created when:
1) You provide a new piece of information
2) You provide a well-supported opinion to what the blogger said.
3) You provide an application of something the blogger wrote about.

Just to name a few.

You provide all this information freely and without any expectation of receiving anything in return.

Confused?

Some schmoe might be thinking, "Silly advice! I'd rather put 'Hey, nice blog! Come visit my blog at: www.Blog-I-Want-To-Pimp.com'"

Yeah, right. Those are the first comments I delete every morning.

Creating value means you give something freely, and something magical will appear.

Welcome to the concept of "social reciprocity". 9 times out of 10, the person or community I've contributed that information to, will send traffic to me without asking.

I'll get multiple backlinks to my blog entry. And I'll sometimes get included on multiple blogrolls too.

How's that for breaking into the "Social Inner Circle"?

The moment you start doing this, there's a "viral" effect to this too. A single piece of advice might lead to 10, or even a 100 blogs linking back to you.

You may think that building a huge network takes a village, but in reality, it only requires a single good intention. Be well.

Andrew Wee is a MyBlogLog Advisor and blogs about blogging, affiliate marketing and social traffic generation at WhoIsAndrewWee.com. His MyBlogLog profile is: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/andreww/