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Testing the Blog Boundaries

The guys over at JohnCow.com recently put out a call for guest bloggers, and guess what, they had no problem filling up a week’s worth of space. Looks like it was a great experiment for them. Guest blogging benefits both the publisher and the contributing author, opening up each other’s audiences. See if you like the content they picked!

I also had two guest bloggers appear here on MsDanielle last week, which I’d like to highlight and thank the authors for their contributions. Jason from j2fi.net and Chris from chrisblogging.com contributed the posts “Quick Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block” and “Beware the Dark Site.” I encourage you to check out their blogs — I really enjoy their writing styles and their content is always informative. (Thanks, guys!)

Nate Whitehill and Josh Mullineaux have published a series of video podcasts which have really taken off quickly. They’re concise, informative, well-edited, and they create a realness to the blogs that connect them to their readers. Check it out and leave them some feedback on what you think.

Blog Contests

Yes, the never-ending stream of blog contests continues into September. Check out some of the latest:

• CashForComments: Win a LG 24″ LCD Monitor
  Some people have remarked that he’s just copying John Chow’s latest contest, but hey, it worked for John and it will work here too. Stop griping, and enter the contest — you could actually win the monitor! The contest is sponsored by the Sneaky Bastard (get paid to comment!) and Elite Baseball Training.
• Ed Lau and Michael Kwan: Win Two iPod Nanos
  Help Ed and Michael come up with a name for their soon-to-come hockey blog collaboration. Think it’s easy coming up with a good non-taken domain name these days? Try your domain naming skills and see if you can win!
• Romandock: Win a Ham Radio Manual and 25 Bucks
  This has to be one of the most unique contests I’ve seen to date. In an effort to bring more reader interaction to his blog, Nick is giving away some materials to help ham-radio newbies get their license. It’s great to see a niche blog giving away a niche prize. If one of you win, you could start your own KBLOG!
• Darin Carter: Win a Nintendo Wii
  This one is sooo gonna be mine. I was pretty upset when I didn’t win the Wii from JC, but I have a good feeling about this one! Darin’s search marketing contest ends August 31st, so I barely made it by six days. Darin does know his stuff, as you can see from his PPC Management series. The only critique I have about his content is his frequent use of “….” Then again, this is coming from the daughter of a teacher. [Darin, like how I linked to your category page?] Congrats as well to Darin for making it to #9 on page 1 of Google for “search marketing.”
• Gary Lee: Win an Apple iPhone
  Gary hasn’t announced his contest end-date yet, mainly because part of his contest is reliant on Google’s Page Rank update, which seems to have mysteriously vanished. [There might be updates on the, uh, update, but I have been out of the loop for a few days.] Since Google is slacking, take advantage of the opportunity to enter his contest — a free iPhone is never a bad thing.

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