Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

You’ve not heard of Blogburst, but it’s an exclusive resyndication service for bloggers that lets you put your content into the hands of world-famous publications like the Washington Post. Unfortunately, the service is only for select “high quality, topic-focused blogs” by invitation only, reminding me of the exclusive club of the A-lister. Thus, I redub this service ABurst, and remake their flow chart:

See, if you’re the kind of blogger they want (the famous A-listers), you already have what they’re offering you. So basically, they want you to give them your content for free. On the other hand, if you’re no on the A-list, there’s no way you’re getting in. You don’t even get past stage one. I submitted my Cornell blog to them–we’ll see if they take it or not.

Update: They seem to like my Cornell blog enough to let it into the program. Interesting. Now that they’ve also approved my personal blog, I take back the A-list comment. I don’t know if this service will eventually be useful to me or not, but I definitely appreciate being able to participate.

Karima Adebibe, the new Tomb Raider, comes complete with pre-production scarring:

I hope I’m not the first to suggest that these scars could be caused by plastic surgery…

If you’re managing a large number of blogs or a blog network yourself, you might be yet another tired problogger running out of ideas to write about. Here are a few tips to keep, if not the creative juices, the blog output flowing:

1) Product releases. You can win a lot of links, traffic, comments, and acclaim if you’re the first to thoroughly examine a new product. Sure, a dozen guys have already linked to the press release, but when you try it, review it, and trackback them all, you’re blogging an instant hit post. It could even go to Digg, Wikipedia, or Slashdot as a source!

2) Devil’s advocate. Also known as commentary, writing a response to a more popular article will often get you good results. And the more controversial that you are, the more people will apply number two to YOUR post!

3) Citation spam. It’s not really spam. You read something interesting, pick the most salient snippet, write a sentence or two commentary, and link. For example, take a look at Darren’s Digital Camera site, a perfect use of this technique. Use websites like Digg, Slashdot, and cNet to fuel your approach.

4) Original research. Think of an interesting question or possible correlation, like whether the holidays of the year have a measurable effect on traffic, or the question of how many women are into tech and gaming. Then answer it. If it’s good science, people will link to you.

5) Top lists. Everyone likes top lists. Especially funny, adult-themed, or sarcastic ones. So write a top-ten sexy bloggers list, or a top-ten ways to monetize your blog list, or like me, a how to keep blogging when you’re bored list.

6) Memes. The infamous 4-things meme is a great example of something you can just steal, fill out, and stick on your blog regardless of whether anyone’s fingered you or not. www.memepool.com/ is a great place to find memes to jump on.

[15:51] <martinsheen> is kiwi hot?
[15:52] <Impulsive> i’d hit it
[15:52] <Impulsive> i mean
[15:52] <Impulsive> …
[15:52] <martinsheen> hahaa
[15:55] <Eventine> kiwiis very hot
[15:55] <Eventine> you should go hit that up
[15:56] <erwin_schrodinger> …
[15:56] <martinsheen> if shes so hot, why dont YOU hit it
[15:56] * erwin_schrodinger cries
[15:56] <Pseudonym> hahahaha
[15:57] <[Chatbot]kingwalterii> lol
[15:57] <martinsheen> is kiwi a guy or something?
[15:57] <martinsheen> is that the joke?