At this point only a dead ostrich could ignore the downswing in the economy. I need not rehash the situation we’re in, but I suggest now might be a good time to evaluate what you blog about, keeping this new reality in mind. I’ve already noticed many mainstream media outlets shifting their content to reflect this new reality. read more

WordPress 2.7 feature freeze announced. Parent/child WordPress Themes change how Themes will work in WordPress 2.7 - are you ready? WordCamp Bangkok this weekend, Hawaii next weekend. WordPress Weekly Podcast talks SEO. WordCast Podcast talks about influential bloggers and WordPress folks. And more WordPress and WordCamp news.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7 Development: As of October 14, 2008, WordPress 2.7 has frozen all features to prepare for the first round of release candidate testing. The announcement of the first release candidate should be out any time for those willing to risk their blogs and their lives to test this new version. read more

Do you suffer from “lurker syndrome”? Where you would like to participate but just can’t?

I talk to bloggers a lot in private, for fun, and professionally with coaching clients and my Authority Blogger Course members. One of the issues that comes up repeatedly is fear of putting yourself “out there”.

Symptoms manifest in many ways, for example course members being shy about joining my private forum, and also with things like Blog Action Day, not wanting to post about potentially controversial topics. read more

Last Friday, Chris Garrett asked what you are doing for Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty.

If every blogger involved in the annual October 15 event would have left a comment at Chris’s post, there would be well over 10,000 of them.

And yet, if every person living in poverty were to comment, there would be more than 3 BILLION comments.

Can you fathom it?

I am grateful to be an assistant event coordinator for Blog Action Day this year. It has broken my spirit several times over to consider the magnitiude and subject matter of the effort. read more

Unless you desire to have your blog looking like a fail whale, you have to find ways to schedule blogging into your life.

Google Calendar has been an asset for me (as far as scheduling goes), but unless I received a strong signal for my iPhone, the Google Calendar web app was entirely useless (at least on AT&T).

Fortunately I discovered an iPhone app called SaiSuke (from Say Software) which allowes me to sync to Google Calendar (both ways) over the air without touching Outlook or iTunes.

Since this iPhone app is rather pricy (at around $10), you may want to check out the review below to decide if this app is worth skipping lunch at a restuarant (and just brown bagging it for a day). read more

When the first Barcamps became WordCamps, Barcamps for WordPress fans, I was so excited. As soon as possible, I got myself involved and invited to these grassroots events, enjoying meeting WordPress fans from all over the world.

When asked to speak at WordCamp Portland, they chose “How WordPress Changes Lives.” While preparing the video and presentation for “WordCamp Portland: How WordPress Changes Lives,” I kept asking myself what it is about WordPress that changes lives - that something that goes beyond blogging.

Blogging changes lives, but when WordPress enters into the conversation, faces light up. Fans recognize fans instantly. They want to “talk” WordPress. They want to debate over favorite Plugins, Theme features, SEO, and how to make WordPress work better for them. They share their thoughts openly about what’s wrong with WordPress, what’s right, and what can be better.

When I go to blog, web, and social media conferences, I don’t hear folks using TypePad, Movable Type, Live Journal, Blogger, or other hosted or blog platform services getting so fanatical and energized by talking about their blogging tool. Sure, they will whine and moan about this and that, wish they had this feature, and say they are satisfied with that feature, but the passion for the product is lacking. read more

Gadget blog Engadget, a part of AOL’s portfolio under the Weblogs Inc. brand, is apparently going to be the official CES blog, according to TechCrunch. The obvious contender for the partnership, which is a first for CES, would be Gizmodo, but after Richard Blakeley’s stunt last year, where he used TV-B-Gone to turn off exhibitor’s TV sets, I reckon the CES people would rather not have said Gawker Media blog there at all…

This is a great recognition for Engadget, so congratulations to them! CES is due on January 8-11, 2009.

For someone who’s not an US citizen, the lawsuit scare is somewhat far into the back of my head. That might be a luxury you can’t afford, so you might want to consider some kind of insurance for potential lawsuits. Silicon Alley Insider points to Media Bloggers Association, which offer law services for bloggers, including liability insurance programs that are way more economic than the expensive ones geared at the old media guard.

While this might be a good idea, I must second SAI on another point as well: health insurance. You might want to look up that alley first, because after all, your health is more important than your money, and you’ll probably not piss people off like Michael Arrington does.

Discussing the current economy condition within the United States and the world, my husband and I talked about how blogging and social media can help so many impacted by today’s financial crunch. Imagine my delight while reading the September 16, 2008, issue of Women’s Day Magazine in a waiting room about the number four tip for their “Solutions Your Money” column: Start a blog:

The example they give is of a second-grade teacher who blogs about coupon savings tips and plans and makes $80 to $100 a month. While few do even that well, it is an additional way to bring in a few bucks to your life when the financial crunch is on, if you play nice and right.

So the number one way blogs can help you survive the current economy is to help bring in a little extra spending cash.

That’s not all a blog can do for you during this economic downtime. Have you thought about all the benefits a blog can bring while the economy dances in the wind? read more

Happy Monday, folks! I get the sense the Movable Type community is in full-on development mode right now. In the past week I’ve seen new developer documentation, proposals for MTOS, and work on a REST API. Not much has been released, though, so I think people still have their heads buried deep into code. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see what everyone’s working, but for now there are a few interesting new things to discuss.

Image Gallery

Mike T. has a new Image Gallery plugin that allows you to add an image gallery to a blog post. Mike’s examples on his site look great, and the ability to build a gallery on the fly when you write your post seems handy. read more