Wild Card Wednesday - Must Love Blogs! New Weekly Columns + Best Practices for Bloggers

I've noticed a big spike in readership after starting my social networking, marketing, and technology-themed posts.  Since I really like researching and writing about these topics, this pleases me.

I believe theaters will greatly benefit from embracing new technology and social networking as a way to actively engage their audiences.  Though I still write my blog posts with artists and theater companies in mind, I'm aiming to make them applicable to small businesses and individual artists trying to get exposure on the big, fat internet.

For now (beginning the week of June 6th) my blog will be posted at between 9pm and 12am PT every weekday with the following topics:

• Marketing Monday- These blogs take a look at marketing trends, media and social networking.
  
• Tech Tuesday - Here you'll find new (or under appreciated) technology and tips to use it to your advantage.
  
• Wild Card Wednesday- Though open topic, here is where you'll most likely see interviews and guest columns.  I also like to have a gap mid-week in case some big news breaks that can't wait until its designated theme day.
  
• TED Talk Thursday- We all need a little inspiration to get us through to the weekend.  Here's where I'll post and discuss an inspirational TED Talk that I find relevant with that week's news and posts.
  
• Fun Friday- I'm still an artist, and I know a lot of artists.  This day is reserved for showcasing creativity.  To apply to be showcased, go ahead and send me an e-mail with a sample of your work.  Videos, comics, jokes, paintings/drawings, photography, music and (short) creative writing are all perfect to submit.

Are you a blogger or interested in blogging?  

3 Recent Articles for Best Practices in Blogging:

1. The Blueprint for the Perfect Blog Post.  While I'm against standardizing all blogging styles to fit one model (that would make for a boring blogosphere), B2C blogger Brian Rice makes some excellent points:  Keep the blog clear, to the point, and able to be scanned for quick reading.  Be helpful by linking to related posts and sites, and make it easy for readers to share the posts!
   
2. The Four Pillars for Writing Exceptional Blogs.  Featured on Problogger, this article was contributed by Leo Babauta from Zen Habits, a blog that has 12,000 readers and made it into the Technorati Top 500 in 5 months.  Babauta writes that "content is king" in drawing readership and lists four tips for producing great content.  Largely common sense, the advice is a worthy read.
   
3. Blog Marketing Strategy: 7 Steps to Social SEO Success.  Once you've written the perfect blog filled with high-quality content, how do you get people to see your work?  Lee Odden's lengthy post on toplinkblog.com takes a little time to digest, but offers fundamental tactics for getting your blog viewed by the readers you seek.

Finally: Do You Need Blogging Buddies?

I hope these articles will help you type your way to blogging success!  One final article to check out is the B2C post on the benefits of having a blogging buddy.

If you have a blog and are searching for a blogging buddy, go ahead and post it in the comments section below.

Please click on the +1 button if you found this blog to be useful!

-Danielle Loebs

LED Keyboard photo courtesy of technabob.com, Awesome Face Buddies picture created by me.