Weekly Review #8

Oh my, what an exciting week this has been for the Blogger community! Google have pulled a really great new tool out of the hat which will be very useful for Blogger members, while I have been working on a complete overhaul of this site, which I plan to unveil in the next few days...

In fact, I'm so busy writing about these new developments that I will have to keep this Weekly review relatively short. The good news is that in the next few days you'll be seeing complete posts about these developments, so keep your eyes peeled for updates which will appear very soon.

Blogger Buster news

Guest posting at BloggingTips.com

Regular readers of BloggingTips.com may have noticed my guest post: 40+ Essential Tools for Google Blogger, which was published late last Sunday. This post is a resource list for Blogger users which features some of the best tools and resources available to help you build a better blog.

As the name suggests, Blogging Tips is a resource for bloggers in general, featuring articles about blog development, design, SEO, marketing and so much more!

Please do pop by to take a look at my resource list for Google Blogger, and also the other great posts written by the more regular members of the Blogging Tips team.

I do hope to become a regular writer on Blogging Tips where I'll be writing about Google Blogger and general blog design. My next post is (probably) due in the next couple of days, and once I have clarification, I'll be sure to let you all know about my posting slot!

Blogger Buster redesign

I'm in the process of giving Blogger Buster a whole new makeover. Not simply a new design, this is intended to make more positive changes to the way this site can be used, including:

• Easier navigation for access to posts, resources and templates


• Search engine optimization and better overall ranking for the site


• Better organization for labeling, searching and archives to ensure readers are easily able to locate the content they need.

I will post about the changes more fully before the new changes take full effect, and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have about how this site could be improved!

Blogger News

As I hinted in the introduction to this post, Google have developed a really great new tool which can be used for free in our Blogger blogs!

Grandcentral is a free new service from Google which allows you to receive calls and post voice mails directly on your blog!

For me, this is a revolutionary method for blog authors to interact with their readers, and foresee this will be a highly useful tool for many blog authors to implement.

At present, Grandcentral is in beta testing mode, though Blogger users are able to sign up to begin using this free service right away.

I will post about this more fully once I've had the time to research and test this new product, and will let you know more about it then (though for many reasons, I doubt I will implement this into Blogger Buster).

This week's links

Here's a handful of my favorite posts and links related to blogging for this week. I'm sure you'll understand why this one is a little short when you see the new site design ;)

• 40+ Top blogs which will teach you to blog like a pro! ProBloggersMatrix has created a truly inspirational list of must read blogs for aspiring bloggers.


• A comprehensive guide to keyword research for bloggers : this is a great, though somewhat lengthy article which has been published for free by CopyBlogger. Find out how keyword research affects your blog's status in search engines, and learn how to improve this by reading your free comprehensive guide.


• Prioritize your blog into 5 distinct groups: This article by ProBlogDesign has been invaluable to me whilst working on the makeover for Blogger Buster. If you're interested in the design and layout of your blog, this really is a "must read" which will provide much food for thought.


• 9 Things that drive a blogger crazy! Skelliewag has become a must read blog for me, and as always, this is an excellent post which delivers the best advice about blogging. In this post, Skellie tackles nine blogging events which can drive us crazy if not approached in the right way. (Number 2 was particularly relevant for me when I noticed my subscribers had dropped to almost half! Temporarily though, thank goodness!)

I hope you've enjoyed this somewhat shorter Weekly Review. Please do subscribe to the feed to ensure you're kept up to date with the developments here over the next few days. I promise you'll be in for a very pleasant surprise...