The Blogger's Concierge

We have a fab guest star today. Erin from Nirvana Mamma is writing about pinging. I found this post on her blog awhile back and asked her if she’d mind sharing it with the TBC community. I learned a lot from this and we think you will, too! Oh, and go give Erin some TBC love! Enjoy!

If you’re a new blogger, you’re just trying to get noticed.  So you comment on other blogs and SEO the heck out of your awesomely crafted posts, but still haven’t reached the 1000 (um…more like 100….ok…10) visitors a day mark, right?  I hear you, sister!  All I know is it takes time to grow your blog.  Not the answer you want to hear, I’m sure.

But there are a few things you can do to help grow your blog faster, and pinging is one of them.

Pinging (Don’t freak out – I’m not going to get all techie on you) is a groovy little trick that should bump your numbers a bit.  Each time you post, a ping (message) can be sent to search engines and blog directories telling them you have new content. Pinging takes little time to set up, and then you’re effortlessly marketing your blog to several search engines and blog directories at once.   So you’re not just another new blogger wallflower anymore waiting for the search engines to come to you. 

Setting Up Pinging in Blogger

Unfortunately, pinging in Blogger can’t be completely automated like in Wordpress.  Just another reason to use Wordpress, right?  But, it’s still fairly easy to do.

First, make sure you have basic pinging set up in Blogger.  Log into your Blogger account and select, “Settings”, then “Basic”, and make sure “Yes” is selected from the “Let Search Engines Find Your Blog” drop-down list.  This will ensure that every time your blog is updated, it pings Weblogs and Google Blog Search.

There are several others sites you should ping, however, and a majority of them are covered by services like Ping-O-Matic and Pingoat.  You must remember to use these services EVERY time you update your blog. 

Whenever you finish a post, just go to the Ping-O-Matic and Pingoat homepages and input the title of your blog, blog URL, check all of the checkboxes and submit.  It’s very easy, but make sure you only do this when you update your blog.  If you ping the search engines too many times without updating your blog, you may get blacklisted.

Setting Up Pinging in Wordpress

If you use Wordpress, you’re in luck, as you can set up automatic pinging in your dashboard and ping any site you wish every time you update your blog.  Yep!  Wordpress is dope like that!

In your WordPress dashboard go into “Settings”.  Under “Settings” select “Writing”.  At the bottom of the” Writing” tab is a section called “Update Services”.  In that box, list the addresses of the pinging services you want to notify.  Feel free to copy my list below.  Happy pinging!

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://rpc.blogcatalog.com/

About the Author:  Erin is a sometimes-clueless mom to two boys, who are her world (which they routinely destroy) as she’s a stay-at-home-mom.  She follows her bliss by writing about blogging, motherhood, and all things groovy at her new blog NirvanaMamma.com.

Have you ever wondered what it might feel like to be an A List celeb?   When dozens of photographers pounce on a celebrity, they capture the essence of the star.  Those candid shots can reveal a lot about the person behind the make-up, costumes and glamor. Taken by surprise, you never know what those wacky stars with do or say!

The Blogger’s Concierge is opening the holiday weekend with our first Paparazzi Weekend! On a Paparazzi Weekend, the head concierges will hunt down several A List bloggers.  You get to pounce on them with comments! Let them know that TBC sent you over there!

We spotted these three bloggers who are already stars with us! Leave us a comment here if you would like to be pounced on in the next round. Visit them, and remember to leave your mark with a comment!

Life of Ann James

One Cluttered Brain

Confessions of an Untenured Teacher

The Paparazzi Weekend gives you a chance to find new blogs, connect with each other and support each other through commenting.

Have a happy and safe Independence Weekend!

Today’s guest star is the Empress, from Good Day, Regular People. If you don’t already follow this blog, you really must go check it out. Empress writes beautifully, with equal parts humor and intimacy. Oh, and her 8 year old son helps her blog once per week! Please go tell her how fab she is after you read this post! Her bio appears after this post.

My Most Difficult Blogging Moment

I can still remember the shock of it all, and how very personally I took it. I had told myself that it wouldn’t happen, that I wasn’t that type. Those kinds of things happened to others, and if it did happen to me, I wouldn’t be affected. Other kinds of people were pulled into that, but I’m not other kinds of people. I’m solid, and rock steady, and sure of myself.

Turns out I was that kind of people.

I never saw it coming–I think that’s what sets all the gears in motion. The unexpectedness of it, the force with which the surprise attack hits you. Welcome to the world of Your First Negative Comment.

Yes, I reacted in all the ways I said I wouldn’t. I reacted in the ways I had seen what I had judged to be lesser people react. I would click my tonge and tsk away when I’d see a blogger spend an entire post on defending herself against the negative word comments. “Sheesh,” I’d mutter, “get a grip, it’s just a negative comment. Get over it.”  Wait till you walk a mile in the moccassins, I now say.

I wish I would’ve had a camera mounted on my screen to show my unsuspecting face smiling  and reading and laughing through the lovely comments on a post I had written on the surliness of my teenage son. I’d pat myself on the back and tell myself how lucky I was to have such wonderful bloggy friends. Then, I leaned in closer to the screen, furrowed my brow, then opened my eyes and mouth in disbelief ( are you with me now in the moment, sistahs?), as I realized that SOMEONE did not like what I had written. SOMEONE named Anonymous told me I was a ninny and a nincompoop and silly and wrote something barely recognizable and passable as a blog entry, and your little dog, too.

To say I fell off my chair in a crumpled mass is an understatement. I now question why I let it affect me the way I did. I don’t know…it did, it hurt me on all levels. It attacked my child, it attacked me as a mother, it came out of nowhere. I think it’s that element of surprise that hits your raw, vulnerable, unprotected nerve. And, of course, they’re slamming your kid….not a good feeling.

How to get over this? I didn’t address the commenter, (couldn’t anyway…Miss Ann Ominous). I decided to blog on how my feelings had been hurt. I didn’t defend my post, or put down the commenter. I just posted on how maybe I am a silly nillynuggins and so what. It’s who I am. To my surprise, that post did more for me than I ever could have foreseen. All my lovelies came from the east, south, north, and west, to my defense. I was loved upon over and over and lifted up high and in receipt of multiple virtual baskets of muffins.

That negative comment turned out to be an opportunity for me to see all the beauty of the lovely women bloggers that do exist in the majority of the blogosphere. From something bad, something good. It affirmed what I had already been coming to believe, that bloggers are a very special breed: and that just as easily as one is bruised and knocked down on the internet,  one is just as quickly held and comforted and loved right back up again.

Thank you, my lovely, lovely bloggy followers. I got your back.

First off, we want to thank each and every one of our 64 bloggers whose lovely, fascinating, funny, touching and unique blogs we had the honor of reviewing this weekend! We are such a  young site, yet already we have an incredibly rich and diverse community of followers. You are rock stars!

You also are all A-Listers in our book! While the A-List Affair sounds like an exclusive event for which we have very stringent criteria for admission, it is anything but. In fact, our sincerest hope is that this list, and community, is most of all, INCLUSIVE. Nobody “fails” to make the list.  YOU are now the heart of this community!

The A-List Affair was our way to kick-start our blog index, which will serve two purposes:

1. Provide a pool from which to feature bloggers on a regular basis; and

2. Form a core blogroll which, over time, will be broken into niche blog areas for easy reference.

So today, we’re going to feature our first blogger! But first, we want to give you all a sneak peek into what we have planned for the coming weeks:

* “guest star” posters every Friday: last week we kicked off with Amy from Amy’s Blam. Tomorrow, we’ll have Alexandra from Good Day, Regular People (posting early due to the holiday weekend). We’ve got more guest stars already lined up through July and August, and there are some great topics ahead. But if you would like to submit a post for us, please, by all means, email us with your topic idea or your post so we can get you on the calendar!

* quick tips: we began a “quick tip” series this past weekend as well. This will be a short and quick idea for you to improve your blogging or your efficiency each week. We’ll be continuing this series every weekend. We know time is precious on weekends and we want to keep our content short and sweet!

* paparazzi weekend:  this weekend, we’ll be having a  “Paparazzi Weekend.”  Just like a paparazzi captures celebs on film, we’re capturing more of our wonderful A-list submissions and sharing those blogs with you all weekend long! This will give you a chance to meet some new bloggers to connect with, so give them your support!

Okay…so now, for our first Featured A-List Blogger! It was nearly impossible to choose only one! But this blogger’s A-List post was a real standout for its creativity, its eloquence and beauty.  The envelope please! Our first A-Lister is….

A Perfect Welcome!!!

A Perfect Welcome takes you right to France with her beautiful writing. Please check out her A-List post, which creatively incorporated many of her previous blog posts into it. Her latest post, entitled “A French Woman”, is a fascinating look at…well, the French Woman.

Please give A Perfect Welcome a visit this week, tell her you’re visiting from TBC, and enjoy her lovely writing!

and keep an eye out for Thursday, when we start giving shout-outs to even more of you during Paparazzi Weekend!

There’s one thing that EVERY girl blogger should have, and it won’t cost you a penny – just a little time and luck. You’d like your blog to have tons of new followers in a matter of days, right? And how about scoring guest post opportunities to increase your blog’s reach? Sound good? Would you love for the chance to collaborate with other cool bloggers and improve your own writing?

Of course this sounds terrific? But how?

The answer is simple: you need a Fairy Blogmother.

A Fairy Blogmother is the gal who is looking out for YOUR blog in the blogosphere. She’s almost like a movie star’s agent: she offers you unwavering support and encouragement, finds ways to get your name out there, and might very well believe more in your abilities than you do! Some Fairy Blogmothers just take their role on naturally, stepping in like Cinderella’s fairy godmother without being asked. Others are pleased to take on the wand when a fellow blogger approaches them for help.

So how do you find your Fairy Blogmother? Don’t worry. You probably already have one waiting in the wings. She’s likely one of your very early followers, one of the first bloggers YOU followed, or a gal that seems to be the first to respond to your techie questions on Twitter.

Think about the people in your blogging world. Someone’s name will jump to the forefront. Ask that person if they are willing to be your Fairy Blogmother – to be your resource for help and questions…maybe help you find guest post opportunities. People who are blogging naturally WANT to be a part of a community and are flattered to be looked upon as a mentor.

On the flip side of this topic, considering stepping up to be a Fairy Blogmother yourself.  We’ve got to pay it forward, gals. Don’t feel like you have to be a seasoned professional to help someone else! But how?

*Send someone in a different blogging niche any guest posting opportunities you stumble upon

* Come up with ideas to collaborate with another blogger and write a shared post

* Forward on cool plugins you find

There are as many ways to assist someone as there are people needing assistance.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to own my Fairy Blogmother: Empress [Alexandra] of Good Day, Regular People. Empress is one of my first bloggy friends. She has presented me guest post ideas and when I got too busy, too forgetful or too afraid to submit my posts, she nicely harasses me until I get them done. She never fails to comment on my blog and was the first to support this new venture at TBC. I owe many of my new followers to her support. You guys will get to hear some of her wisdom when she guest stars for us later this week- you’ll love her as much as I do!

Are you anything like the head concierge’s and love following a wide range of blogs? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed when you open your Google Reader? Then, this post is for you!

Google Reader is a great asset. Unfortunately, not everyone uses it to it maximum benefit. The most overlooked feature of Google Reader is the ability to put blogs into folders. Here is a brief tutorial on how to create folders.

1. Manage Subscriptions: When you sign into your Google Reader, you will notice the navigation bar on the left hand side. On the very bottom, below your subscriptions, see the phrase, “Manage Subscriptions.” (Circled in yellow in the picture.)

2. From the manage subscription screen, folders can be created.

3. On the far left, click on “Add to folder”

4. Click on “new folder” or add the subscription to a folder that you have already created.

5. When you return to the Reader view, the subscription folders will be in the left navigation menu.

6. The key is to create folders that will filter blogs the way you want them. A smart way to organize your blogs is into niches. For example, food blogs, book blogs, giveaway blogs, etc.

Happy reading!

Oh yeah. We got ourselves a guest star!

Many of you may know Amy from Amy’s Blam. She is funny, sassy, no-holds-barred blogger. This past week, she wrote a post about stuff she wish she knew before she started blogging. TBC liked it so much we asked her if we could repost it here for y’all to enjoy. Please give Amy a shout out back by visiting her blog, [you won't regret it!] or retweeting this post! Thanks, Amy. Take it away!

So. This is actually a post bordering on the educational/informative and NOT about oh if I knew what I know now when I was in high school…because honestly? If I knew the shit I know now when I was in  high school I would have probably a. gone on a killing spree, b. been arrested at least once or c. been less sweet than I already was. Scary thoughts people.

This is about if I’d known what I know now when I started blogging. People have actually asked me for advice/opinions. Scary.

1. WordPress-that is something I did right. It was an arbitrary choice at the time but one I’m glad I made.

2. Planning-I did blogging like I do everything. Jumped in and decided I would figure it out as I went along and it would either work or I would explode/go to jail. Well, it’s worked and it hasn’t. I wish I would have taken a little time to plan.

3. Consistency is huge. I wish I would have from the getgo had my own domain name-it’s so easy to do and pretty cheap. Pick a comment name, twitter, domain name and stick with them.

4. Commenting/reading other blogs. Probably the best thing you can do. I wish I would have always used the same name when I was commenting. AmyBlam is what I tend to use now-because in the blog world-that’s who I am. Meeting and chatting with other bloggers is awesome and one of the best parts about blogging. I have blog friends I like WAY more and that I think get me better than some people that I know. Want readers? Comment on other blogs. I TRY REALLY hard to either reply to a comment on my site, or MUCH more often, visit the person’s site and leave a comment-I just think it’s nice to do.

5. Design. I’m lucky to have a graphic designer for a sister and I wish I would have started with a good design. If you don’t have relatives you can force in to slave labor, there are still plenty of options and templates and your own photos you can work with. Pick a look and stick with it. Clean lines, bright colors and easy to read fonts/text are huge.

6. Twitter-for blogging I almost think it’s a necessity. I wish I would have tied the two together early on with the same look and feel.

7. Facebook fan page-I waited a really long time to do this despite the internet telling me to all the time. Scary Mommy has some awesome tips.

8. Set up a separate blog email. I did mine with gmail because I am not smart enough to figure out how to do amy@amyblam.com

9. Tags-This is the ONE thing I wish more than anything that I had really thought out, swear to waffles. I wish from the start I had selected maybe 20 or 25 tags that I was going to use consistently.

10. Feed readers-I originally had partial feeds going out and found that most people HATE that. I mistakenly thought it drove traffic to the site. I was wrong, general consensus I’ve received is that it’s annoying to HAVE to go to the site to read the whole post. They’d rather read the whole post and then go to the site to comment if they choose. And? Since I went to full feeds, page views AND comments have increased.

11. Copywrite-a benefit of having lawyer friends. I was advised to have a copywrite both on the blog AND on each posts. I’m still not 100% why but they’re lawerly and informed and stuff so I did it.

12. A button-I just recently figured this out thanks to Alabaster Cow. You’ll use it more than you think you will.

13. Figure out when people read your blog. I get most of my hits in the morning and at lunctime. Weekends not as many. So either post around traffic or promote around it-thru twitter/facebook/etc. I’m still working on catering to this.

14. Make it easy to comment- I hate capcha things. I’d rather weed out spam then have to make my readers work to comment. It’s a personal thing but that’s what I prefer.

Things I WISH I did and am working on:

1. Post calendar. I’m big on writing about whatever strikes my fancy. I’d like to be a little more structured and plan out for a few weeks at a time what I am going to cover and on what day.

2. Share this with readers. Once a week post come back and read this on Monday, this on Wednesday, etc. Miel et Lait is GREAT about this and where I got the idea.

3. Schedule posts for if I’m going to be busy/traveling/etc. This is my first attempt at that.

What about you? What have you learned? What would you share with new bloggers? What are you still trying to improve?

Everyone is an A Lister at The Blogger’s Concierge. What’s exclusive about it? A Listers get exclusive previews of exciting events and insider tips. Who decides if you belong on the A List? YOU DO! To be a member of The A List, all you need to do is proclaim yourself one!

When The Blogger’s Concierge was conceived, the head concierge’s wanted a place where every blogger — from newbie to seasoned star — felt like they were an insider. Gigi articulated it best when she wrote:

“You all probably know a wine snob. I love wine, but when I first started really getting into it and wanting to learn about it, I felt like the whole “wine thing ” was intimidating and inaccessible. Conspiracy theories set in: there was a secret society of people that “got wine” and I was on the outside looking in.

Sometimes, I feel that way about blogging. It can be intimidating, inaccessible, overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like an outsider looking in, a latecomer to the party, trying to figure out what everyone else is doing that I’m not.”

We couldn’t be more pleased with the response from bloggers! Our following is growing across a variety of blog niches and bloggers level of experience. Over two dozen of you have already linked up for our inaugural red carpet event — The A List Affair.

are you on the a list?

We hope that more of you will choose to be included in our directory of diverse bloggers who support each other, we call that The A List. You can leave a comment on telling us about your blog, email you blog details to TheBloggersConcierge@gmail.com or write a post introducing yourself to the head concierge’s and the rest of the A List. If you write a post, please link up on The A List Affair post.

The head concierge’s will feature a blog from The A List, our index of participating blogs, every week! Remember, our goal with TBC is to infuse the women’s blogging community with new tools and resources to help female bloggers improve their blogs while – and this is important – having a blast doing it.

We want even the smallest of blogs to feel like there is information accessible to them; that they, too, have a way to get exposure and visibility to the larger blog community; that they are insiders. We want to feature the best blogs, provide the best tips, and connect with the best gals out there, no matter what their blogging niche!

This post was originally made over at KludgyMom a few weeks ago.

You may be thinking that blogging is starting to get in the way of your life, your workout routine, your household chores, and your relationships. Don’t quit blogging yet! Today, I present Why Blogging Is Good For You:

1. Blogging helps to protect you from skin cancer. Since beginning to blog, I only leave the house when I absolutely have to: we are out of milk, or I am getting to drop my kids on someone else for the day. My sun exposure has been reduced dramatically.

2. Blogging will help you be more ambidextrous. My frequent scrolling, mouse-clicking and hunching over my laptop in positions resembling long-legged birds such as storks, flamingos and ostriches, sometimes hurts my right hand. No worries! Blogging forces me to use my left hand to keep up my ever-important writing activities!

3. Blogging will improve your time management. Why sleep when there is valuable Facebooking, twittering, blog hopping, meme-ing, drafting, networking, Blogfrogging, commenting, plug-in-searching and obsessing why everyone has more followers than me to do? I’m learning to get by on only 4 hours of sleep instead of 7! How efficient is THAT?

4. Blogging will teach you patience. Sitting and waiting for CAPTCHA and verification words to load in people’s blog comments doesn’t infuriate me. I look at it as a way for me to cheerily sit and pass time for just the perfect moment to submit my comment. I can file my nails, organize my desk or yell at my kids.  Sometimes, Blogger refuses to accept my comment or doesn’t like my login. Do I get angry? No, I just smile and take a deep breath, and resubmit.  Things happen the way they’re meant to, right?

5. Blogging will expand your math skills. Where else could I embrace the opportunity to calculate why one person’s blog gained 200 followers in a week and mine only gained 2? I couldn’t get this knowledge in an advanced college-level course!

6. Blogging will enhance your marriage. Our dinner conversation is now lively and vibrant, filled with my daily tales of making $2 in Sponsored Tweets this week, explaining the ins and outs of Wordpress, and brainstorming with my husband about why a goth holistic scrapbooker who works as a doula part-time in Taiwan is following me on Twitter. The dialogue is so deep, so intimate – it’s never been better!

7. Blogging is a workout! I said this the other day, but it bears repeating. Think about how much exercise your middle finger gets scrolling through items in your Google Reader. Your reflex response time improves each time you dash off comments on 337 Wordless Wednesday posts in one day. It’s a veritable boot camp for your fingers.

8. Blogging teaches you perserverance. Anyone wanting more followers knows that the main requirement is to comment on other people’s blogs. Well, commenting on other people’s blogs requires tenacity. How many times do you type in your name, email and the name of your blog every day – plus your Twitter handle? Blogging is not for the faint of heart!

Now…you tell me…why is blogging good for YOU?

Mark your calendars! The Mad Hatter Tea Party is this Saturday, June 26, 2010! There’s still plenty of time to join in the fun!

What is The Mad Hatter Tea Party, you ask? This is a fun blog carnival which celebrates tea, parties and Alice-in-Wonderland! Hosted by A Fanciful Twist, each participant creates a blog post however she chooses to celebrate!

This is a fun way to showcase your creativity — whether you decide to join in the fun by posting about the perfect tea party menu, create a piece of art, or showcase your writing with a post highlighting an aspect of a tea party.

The most important part is to have fun! We’re looking forward to visiting you on Saturday!