Cool Stuff For Bloggers

Are you a budding author after having been a freelance writer and blogger for some time? If so, then we have that in common.

image via (Kodomut on Flickr)

I’ve been blogging since April 2007 and in that time have amassed quite a library of articles on the web, both on sites I own, sites I’ve sold and sites for paid work. Some time ago, I decided to compile a list of tips and tricks that I’ve learned along my blog and freelance web writing journey – which are now in a book I’ve published entitled Super Blogga.

The book is filled with over 70 plus tips aimed at new blog owners and really anyone with a blog site. But after having written the book, I then had to navigate through the online digital book publishing world to get it out to the public.

Below are the places I have decided to publish the book, and how you can too.

1. Your Blog – this is one place you might not want to overlook in your book publishing arsenal. Let me tell you why. You control everything on your blog, including what and when to write an article, this is HUGE and potentially a venue like no other on the web. If your blog has been around for some time, then you might already have readers and or email subscribers that might be quite interested in your book. One thing many blog owners are doing is sending a survey via their email list and asking their readers what they think of so and so topic for a book. This is great for getting feedback on your idea.

Regardless of the topic you choose and when you get it going, the key point is to make sure you use your blog to get the book out.

2. Amazon – no stranger to the online publishing dynamic, the Kindle from Amazon has truly brought digital publishing to the masses. But more importantly, it will allow you the FAITHFUL, HARD WORKING BLOG OWNER to publish a book many will read via their trusty and dedicated Kindle ebook reader. The Kindle is a gift to authors and publishers around the globe, because it has made it more accessible (and even cool) to read again. Yay!

3. Smashwords – this is a gem of website and tool, because it allows you to submit your book manuscript once and it formats it for use on several platforms, including two biggies – the Nook from Barnes and Noble and the almighty iPhone from Apple. With millions of iPhone users, this one is a must. Just ask any iPhone or iPad user if they use the ebook app and you will get a resounding – YES!

There you have it, three must submit places to publish your blog related book. Or any book for that matter.

Write it, publish it and submit to the above.

Have you had any difficulties in submitting to the above three places? Let us know below in the comment area, we wanna hear it.

Do you blog at night or in dark conditions? If so, have a look at these cool glow in the dark keyboard stickers.

They’re great for when you need an extra eye on the screen, and as stickers you simply adhere each one to the various letters and numbers on your keyboard. Easy as one two three.

Whether you need glow in the dark keyboard stickers for late night blogging or simply think they would a a degree of fun to your routine, give these a try.

Love WordPress as much as we do, then you might be interested in this cool WordPress t-shirt we found on the web.

This is the offical WordPress t-shirt from the smart peeps over at WordPress.org and comes in green for men or bright red for women. These are pretty cool and I plan to give one away here soon, so be sure to follow on Twitter or via RSS to get notice of the giveaway.

As for the t-shirt itself? It’s made from cotton and manufactured by American Apparel which designs cool tee’s, plus it’s available in sizes small through XXX-large, so quite the gamut for men or women.

Profess your love (and devotion) to the Matt Mullenweg community, by getting and wearing one of these super cool WordPress t-shirts.

Speak your peace below:
Do you have one?
Want one?
Like the fresh clean design or think it’s stale?

I got tired of jotting down notes on scraps of paper on my various sites and blogs, then found a super cool WordPress plugin called Admin Notepad.

This free plugin allows you to (leave notes in your admin dashboard) and it’s super duper easy to use, see a screenshot above which shows how it looks and how simple it is.

Great for keeping track of various blog metrics such as subscribers, keywords, traffic, goals or to set up reminders. I use it to keep track of keywords i’m trying to rank for including the search volume, my ranking in Google and the date of each of these.

No more scraps of paper for me, now I just use Admin Notepad and all is stored easily right there in plain view.

This free WordPress plugin is available via the WordPress repository.

Your turn to speak:
Do you use it? If so, what for.
How do you keep track of blog metrics or reminders?
Know of a better solution?

It’s truly amazing to me the variety and quality of WordPress themes found at Theme Forest.

Looking for a restaurant theme for your new outdoor cafe? They got several to choose from. How about a real estate theme for that fledging realtor business of yours? Check. Maybe a CMS for your portfolio or an eCommerce theme for that cool new web-based shop of yours? Check and check again.

And these aren’t boring, stale HTML looking themes either. These are great looking, fully featured and multi-faceted WordPress themes. Many of them come with admin options that rival the likes of Thesis, Headway or Studio Press.

Read more…