The 2008 iDezy Web Worker Award recognises the number web app or tool you can’t live without!

Now’s the time to head on over to the awards page and nominate your favourite tool or app so it can be judged by the panel of experts.  Judging this year is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger, Veronica Belmont from Revision3 and Chris Garrett from Chrisg.com.

Plus you can win one of 5 GoDaddy gift cards or an all access pass to animoto if you nominate an app.

I encourage you to check it out and go nominate!

I’m interested to know who still uses MyBlogLog – the once popular tool which allowed you to create a community around your blog and showed you who had recently visited your blog.

It seems as thouh it has almost completely died as im not seeing it on many blogs.  So heres the poll, are you still using it?

Who Still Uses MyBlogLog

P.S Hit me up on Twitter and send me your blog url as I will be doing a few reviews over on my blog. I would love to checkout your sites!

I don”t think trying to monetize your Twitter profile is a good idea.  Even using it to repost your blog posts is also not good.  But I have noticed that a few options have become available for those looking to bastardize their Twitter profile and thought I would mention them here.

First up is Magpie.  Magpie will insert an ad every “x” number of tweets.  These are listed as “sponsored” tweets and payment is based on how many followers you have. I have noticed a few Magpie ads on Twitter, however I don’t think there are many advertisers using the system.

The second option is Twittad which is a marketplace to sell your Twitter background.  This concept is even more flawed than Magpie as on Twitter the majority of people don’t actually see your background (you usually just see your own, and the majority of Twittering happens offsite through the API).  However, a number of backgrounds have already been sold on the site.

Let me know if you use any of these!

P.S – Make sure you follow me on Twitter.  Plus hit up my blog

Pearls Before Swine has quickly become my favorite comic strip and they’ve been doing a bit about blogging.

Blogging has caught fire lately references to it in commercials, radio, movies, tv shows, and comic strips. Not only that it has evolved into an entire thing of its own. WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore, you can really do anything with it. Reviews, recommendations and more.

Along the way I hope they continue more clever things about blogging like this.

Read all the great comics at the site I found for them, Comics.Com. You can search for different things, such as blogging or blogs. I thought its a great resource to share, and it can be a perfect additional to any of your articles.

The web we use these days is all about being social and interacting with others.  Whether its posting a comment on a blog or Tweeting on your Twitter account, every action you make has an impact on your personal brand.  And seeing as your brand is your most valuable marketing tool, its in your best interest to look after it.

Here are my tips on what NOT to do online.

1. Post generic comments on blogs – “nice post” may sound like your complementing the blogger, but really you are just leaving a lifeless, generic comment that adds no value to the conversation.  Keyword “value”!
2. Post comments promoting your products – there are plenty of other more suitable places to do this.  And besides, your comment already links back to your site.
3. Respond to Trolls – Trolls are those who comment with the sole purpose of being negative and trying to milk a reaction from you.  Get over your ego, ignore them and don’t honour them with any response.
4. Only post about your site on Twitter – Its easy to post about yourself.  Why not do something challenging and post about others.  Talk about others and they will talk about you.

All of this has been said before – in fact its probably said better here, but the big point I would like to make is adding “value”.  If you can contribute to a conversation no matter what form its in (blog, comment, tweet) you are on the right track.

Make sure you follow me on Twitter, check out my blog or you can contact me anthony@feint.me – I would love to hear your thoughts on interacting through social media

I like doing polls for two reasons. One I get to see what people think and the other is just to simply ask questions. I’m always curious in the minds of bloggers.

Lots Of People on Blogger

My most recent poll was, “Do You Own a Blogspot Blog?”. You may not know but some great blogs started out on Blogger, such as Dosh Dosh and of course, this one. Should you move off blogspot? Yes! But it can’t hurt to have blogspot blogs. You can use these to build links to your main blogs, or really just start a project.

I recently just made another blog on blogspot, My Healthy Info. This is to test to see how my content would do, and if I could make money with this health blog. I enjoy writing the articles so it’s all in fun.

Blogger also offers easy ways to redirect a custom domain from your .blogspot domain. This is perfect for beginning bloggers, and exactly what I did with several blogs in the beginning.

Poll Results

Out of the 47 votes we have, 68% of bloggers own a Blogspot domain. Well I guess you don’t really “own” it, but they have one. This simply shows that Blogger is a huge blogging platform that is perfect to start your first blog on.

This is something I used to do quite regularly. It was both a profitable business and was relatively simple.  And now that I am no longer involved in domain “real estate”, I thought I would share with you exactly how to flip domains for profit.

When it comes to domaining there are two paths you can follow.  The first is buying really valuable domains such as www.shoes.com and make money off ads. See lots of people type in shoes.com every day without even bothering going to a search engine. But the problem with this method – it requires a huge capital outlay.  Thankfully the second option is a lot more affordable, and you can even get started with just $20.

This method involves purchasing domains with PR (pagerank), adding value to the domain, and then selling (flipping) them on for a profit.

Buying the Domain

So logically the first step is to find a domain with PR. Pagerank is very valuable and buyers will pay a premium if the site they will acquire already has PR.  But where to find these domains?  I have found the easiest way is to use a free tool called FreshDrop.  Using FreshDrop you can search through various sources including TDNAM (GoDaddys domain auctions), eBay and Sedo, and rank the domains by PR.  I have found many domains with PR and paid only $15-$20.    Look for domains that are short, contain no numbers, and have good keywords in them.

My tip is to only buy domains that you are interested in.  For example I’m interested in blogging, marketing and design and will only purchase domains based around those themes.   Buying domains you are interested in, will make creating content and adding value a breeze.

Adding Value

Once you have purchased a domain the next step is adding value.    The easiest way is to use a WordPress blog – its free, highly customizable and allows for speedy content creation.  In terms of content its important to always think quality.  Quality content will sell for a premium.  So take the time to sit down and write some quality articles that add real value to the site.

The Flip

And finally its time to flip the site.  Don’t be afraid to hold onto the site for a while.  If you continue to build backlinks and promote the site, it should only increase in value.  Remember every backlink, visitor and blog post will increase a sites value.

For small sites I recommend selling them on DigitalPoint or similar forums.  Any site you own, that you expect to sell for more than $200 should be listed on SitePoint. How much will a site sell for?  It varies hugely, but I was consistently flipping sites for $100+ profit.

Guys, make sure you follow me on Twitter here and check out my blog iDezy.com updated daily with the best resources for web workers.