The 179^th edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities appears at John's tribute to nature and our feathered friends blog known as A DC Birding Blog.






Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, and culture.






I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My post is titled "Information sharing: Helping others succeed" where I discuss how helping others achieve their goals and to succeed in business helps everyone in the end. Helping others is the ultimate win win idea as everyone needs assistance at some time in their lives. Thanks to John for making this post an Editor's Pick.



To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.






Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the new e-mail address:

cotvmail -at- gmail -dot- com

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at the political blog known as The Cigar Intelligence Agency.

In the meantime, head on over to the A DC Birding Blog hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Vanities at A DC Birding Blog

Blog posting errors are rarely discussed in blogging circles. They are a bit of a dirty little secret, you might say.

You know the errors that creep into your blog posts. We all make them at one time or another. Minor blog posting mistakes may be spelling errors; incorrect or misleading photographs; wrong names of people or blogs; links that are missing, don't work, or go to the wrong blog; or simply neglected pings.

More important blog post problems involve knowingly posting incorrect information; predictions or opinions that turned out differently than claimed or expected; failure to cite and link references to blogs or static websites; or claiming someone else's ideas as your own in the form of plagiarism. These, of course, are only a few examples of the errors that can creep into your blog postings.

The question then arises as to what to do about the mistake. The all too obvious answer is to return to the problematic post and change history. Sometimes correcting a blog error is acceptable, and even the proper thing to do. For example, any non-working or misdirected links can and should be repaired as a service to the linked blog. If an intended link was overlooked, and missed in the posting, it's good to return to the post and create the missed link. The cited blogger's traffic and SEO linking benefits shouldn't be reduced because someone messed up a link to their blog.



Spelling errors are the source of some controversy among bloggers. While some bloggers believe that spelling errors and typos should be left intact, I see no problem with going back and fixing those proofreading problems. This is especially important if the typo is a misspelling of someone's name. There is one provision on this recommendation, however. Only the typo can be corrected. No other changes can be made to the post that might change its meaning or intention.

For more serious errors, including incorrect information, the original post must not be altered to change history. Instead, the blogger has a two choices. One option is to make the correction, apology, or retraction in the blog comments section for that post. A second option is to write another post that retracts, corrects, or apologizes for the previous error. The new post should, however, quote the problem area of the previous post, and also link back to the previous post. The link back to the old post is essential.



Posting without crediting sources, or claiming their work as your own, is not acceptable blogging practice. While some would argue that "other bloggers do it", that is no excuse. Maintaining good blogging technique helps everyone in the blogging community. If bloggers want their writing to receive respect, then proper credit must be given to others. Linking to, and properly citing your sources, is simply good blogging practice. It should be practiced by everyone.

In most cases of blog posting errors, common sense will dictate the proper course of action. If fixing a post or link helps another blogger, then it's an acceptable blogging practice.

The best idea, of course, is to always proofread your posts before clicking the Publish button.

Not making the error in the first place means it doesn't have to be corrected.

Tags: posting, fixing blogging errors, proofreading, links.

READ MORE - Blog posting errors: Correct them or not

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line

Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff of Build a Better Blog System.

An End to Embarrassing, Underperforming Websites

Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET - Free

Guest Expert: Rick Raddatz, Marketing MakeOver Generator

Let's face it: The vast majority of websites out there an embarrassment to their owners -- and I'm not talking about how the website looks. I'm talking about how much (or little) your website contributes to your bottom line. It's time to give your website an "Extreme Marketing Makeover". Join us as we interview Marketing Consultant Rick Raddatz, a 12-year veteran of Microsoft, to discover his secrets to high performing websites, and to learn how Rick used the internet leads he collected to sell over $200,000 worth of services in a single hour -- twice.



Rick Raddatz (pictured left) is the co-founder of a suite of successful marketing tools including AudioGenerator, InstantVideoGenerator, and MarketingMakeoverGenerator. Prior to life as an internet marketing pioneer, Rick worked at Microsoft over a twelve year period, from 1988 until 2000. Rick has a wife and 2 1/2 children. (Child #3 is due March 15th).

Register for this conversation with Rick Raddatz:

ConversationsWithExperts.com

If you missed any Conversations With Experts, you can become a monthly member of a private blog. As a member, you gain access to the entire Conversation With Experts audio series of guest experts, past and present.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Tags: teleseminars, Rick Raddatz, website makeover, online marketing.

READ MORE - Free teleseminar: Conversations with experts - Rick Raddatz

This week sees a Presidents Day approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to Joseph Weisenthal's markets, business, and economics blog known as The Stalwart.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.

As you would expect from The Stalwart there are many discussions of business, marketing, and economics issues.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.



I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "Business ideas: Does your company live in the past?" where I discuss how many unfounded, but often repeated company legends stand in the way of creative new ideas and solutions to problems. It's necessary for a company to look to the future, and not live on past glories, real or imagined.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

Note as well that Carnival of the Capitalists. has a new URL at http://thecotc.com/. Be sure to update your links and bookmarks.



If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will be at Harish Keshwani's business and blog outsourcing process information blog known as Ideologic LLC.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the The Stalwart hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will offer some stlwart business ideas. (groan)

Tags: carnivals, capitalism, business, marketing.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists at The Stalwart

Blogs evolve over time. They change even when we aren't thinking they are changing in any way. The movement toward a different blog focus may also take place by design. In either case, the focus of your blog may be entirely different from its initial goals. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

Let's examine some possible examples of blog evolution and the possible reasons for the changes.

A business blog may have begun as a sales and marketing tool for the company. The early posts on the blog may have been simply to call attention to the industry in general, and the blogging company's products and services in particular. The goal was to sell the company's products and services through the blog.

Over time, the blogger may have noticed that the overall readership was low. The blo owner understood that the posts were not providing what the visitors sought. Over time, the writer began to add posts providing advice and information related to the industry. Instead of continuing along with the failed business blog, the company blogger made some very conscious changes in the posted material presented to the visitors.

The blogger reviewed books, films, and products pertaining to the general industry and its current and potential customer and client base. The blogger started a conversation with the readers that developed into longer term relationships. The company blog became a success.



Not all blog changes are quite so obvious, however. Some changes are more subtle and are often not noticed at all.

The blogger may have started a business blog to enhance their internet search engine optimzation efforts. They had heard correctly that blogs have tremendous SEO power. With an eye to boosting their blog's search engine rankings, and those of its accompanying company website, links were sought aggressively, and keywords placed everywhere and anywhere throughout the posts. While some improvement in the search engine rankings did take place, the overall SEO results were weaker than expected.

The blog owner grew tired of seeking link exchanges with other blogs. Many of the blogs linked provided little or no visitor traffic, and often shared no related topics with the company blog at all. Along with losing interest in the aggressive link seeking strategy, the urge to place keywords here, there, and everywhere on the blog also declined. No conscious effort was made to change the blog's focus. The changes happened because none of the anticipated benefits ever took place.

The blogger simply wrote posts that were interesting for herself and her readership. After all, she thought, the SEO value of the blog was obviously exaggerated completely. Links and keywords all of that other SEO jargon was pointless, it seemed. Posts that were more personal, interesting, and informative began to appear on the company blog.

As if by some magical spell or potion, the blog's readership also increased. Links to specific posts were arriving to the blog, as if from thin air. As a surprising bonus, the blog rose in the search engine rankings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. The blog focus had indeed changed for the better. Interesting and informative posts attract natural inbound links from theme relevant blogs and websites. Search engines give those theme related links the most weight in their ranking calculations. Less focus on the rankings can indeed improve a blog's SEO power.



Blog evolution is a natural part of blogging. Over time, a blog's focus can and does change. Blog changes are more frequent than most bloggers think, or even consider ever taking place. You might notice changes on other people's blogs. As with your own blog's evolution, the alteration of focus might have been intentional, or it may have been the result of unplanned circumstances.

Part of the true power of having a blog is its flexibility. The blog's ability to grow, adapt to changing needs, and to reflect an entirely new focus is a strength of blogging. As with all change, it's inevitable. We can either let the changes roll over us, or we can put the altered times to work for us.

Blog evolution is a prime example of how change can often work to enhance the blogger's goals and reputation.

Embrace the change.

Tags: managing change, blog evolution, SEO, posting.

READ MORE - Blog evolution: Managing change in blog focus