It’s called The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers (aff). The product was created by Darren Rowse, owner of Problogger.net, and Glenn Murray, owner of Divine write.

To be honest up front I purchased the book because I was interested in improving my writing skills. And I believe the ebook did help me to become a better writer. The only question you need to ask yourself is: Do you want to improve your writing skills?

What Is the Scorecard About?

The ebook is basically a guide to writing better copy. The idea behind it is that you will have a Scorecard by your side, which you can print out. Every time you write a post you will simply take that Scorecard and rate your post. Once you see the mistakes you have made you can then go back and fix them. If you constantly keep on doing this on articles then you will definitely become a better writer.

In order to make it easier to understand the ebook I divided The Problogger Scorecard into 3 main sections (they are not according to the table of contents, it’s simply a suggestion on how to divide it):

• Thing to Understand Before Writing Your Post
• Writing Your Post
• The Scorecard with in-depth explanation (in the previous chapter)

My First Impression on the Problogger Scorecard

When I initially purchased the book I thought that it was a bit too short. That was probably because of all the other ebooks I have read within the first two years of blogging. They were usually longer and this ebook only has 55 pages (it now has even more since it was recently updated).

When you start reading the ebook you will immediately notice that Glenn is a professional copywriter. It’s very easy to read and you can easily understand what Darren and Glenn are pointing out.

The Bad

One thing I didn’t like about the ebook is that a lot of the things that were covered in the book simply referred to grammatical issues. They solely focus on simple problems such as using “your” instead of “you’re”. On the scorecard there are around 20 of these grammar mistakes mentioned. Of course are these things important to know yet they are rather basic. I would have liked to get a little bit more copy writing specific information.

I also had trouble when sitting in front of my laptop trying to edit my posts. On the Scorecard you have lots of small bullets like “Use Emotive Language” and the problem with that is the implementation. I know what “Emotive Language” means yet it’s hard to translate that abstract idea into a post. This is not a problem that I would attribute to the ebook but to life in general. And now that the ebook has been updated it’s easier to integrate this abstract idea since Darren has now added an example on how he ranks his posts and with an explanation of why.

The Good

The great aspect of this ebook is that you can read it quickly. Because of the great writing you will be able to easily consume the information given in the book. But that’s of course also a risk. People will simply read it and they’ll be like “well I guess it didn’t help me that much.” And that’s exactly the problem. In order for this book to work you need to use the Scorecard on your blog posts.

Glenn and Darren updated the ebook a few days ago. The update included a section on how Darren uses the Scorecard with a certain post, as I’ve mentioned above. And this makes the ebook much more useful to me. Since I bought the ebook early on I also got the update for free.

I personally like the idea of having a Scorecard because it gives you something to measure your writing skills with. It also gives you the ability to use the card on posts and to compare it to your articles in order to improve your writing.

Remember when you buy the ebook you’ll also get a 50% discount on Darren’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and on Glenn’s Practical SEO Copywriting. This alone makes it worth to buy the book (at least for me because I got it for $9 when the price was still low).

Conclusion

What you are not going to get with this ebook isn’t something theoretical that you are not going to apply. The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers was made for people who want to improve their writing right now. For people who want to take action right away. That’s why I truly enjoyed the book.

If you don’t want to improve your writing right away then don’t get this ebook. Check out the Scorecard and tell me what you think about it. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This round up is all about web design articles that were submitted to MMO at one point.

If you sign up for MMO Social Network and bookmark site,  start submitting articles to it, and you will have a change of being featured in one of our round ups.

Here we go!

Here is What I Have Found For You Today on MMO Social Network

Web Design Articles

• The Benefits of Using Your Own Images in Website Design – I enjoyed the post because it talked about a different idea, i.e. using your own images instead of getting them from websites.
• 6+ New CSS Tutorials You May Not Have Read Yet – This is an extremely useful list of CSS tutorials especially for beginners.
• How to Create an Enticing Blog Header Image – I liked this post because it showed me the opportunities of where you can find some free images and especially icons.
• How To: Get Insights of Audiences on YouTube – This is a great post about a tool which reveals the demographics of Youtube, it’s really interesting.
• Safe PC and Internet Data – A nice short post about how to guard your data more.
• Awesome Floral Photoshop Brushes – A list post about floral brushes for Photoshop, useful for everyone using Photoshop or Gimp.
• How to Show a Category Post in a Single Page in Thesis Theme – A nice tutorial about how you can add a certain number of posts from a category to a page. Definitely useful for everyone using Thesis.
• Plugin to Display Banner Ad in Corner of Blog – A short post about a nice little plugin that helps you to display a banner ad on a WordPress blog.
• How to Design Text Logo for Your Business Using Powerpoint 2010 – This is a short guide about how to easily create a logo in Powerpoint. Definitely useful for people who are not comfortable using professional image editing software.
• How to Identify a Blog Theme – This is a great video for people who don’t know how to figure out what themes certain blogs are using.

Discussion: What Makes Up a Good Website Template?

I have been using lots and lots of templates (or themes) during my two years of blogging. There are so many good templates out there but there are few that I really want to use on my website. That’s because for me a good theme needs the following: good layout, good typography, highly visible navigation and most of all enough white space. I also think that many web designers do a nice job when designing a theme but they do a poor job when optimizing it for speed for example.

What do you think? What is important to you?

If you would like your article to be featured here then be sure to submit it to MMO social network. All of the articles here and much more can be found at MMO, join us and you might be mentioned!

And after reading, I would like to invite you for a nice discussion!

Here is What I Have Found For You Today on MMO Social Network

Best Blogging Articles

• 12 Traits of Highly Successful Bloggers – I really enjoyed reading this article because it covers all the things that are important in blogging. Great read!
• Are You Commenting Wrong? – Another nice read which outlines a strategy that will help you to comment more effectively.
• Where to Find Free Legal Content For Your Blog – This is great article about where you can find content for your blog. Definitely read it!
• Getting Inspiration for Your Blog Posts – I liked this short post because it gives you an idea of how you can use Twitter creatively.
• How to Write Popular Posts that Get Traffic – Analysis of 5 Top Blogs – It’s a nice analysis of articles from popular blogs and what you can learn from that to write better articles yourself.
• Should We Update Our Old Posts Regularly? – A nice short article about why you should update your old posts regularly. Be sure to check it out.
• Blog Commenting: CommentLuv, Disqus or IntenseDebate? – This post shows you the advantages of using each of these comment plugins. Nice article especially if you are trying to decide which plugin to use.
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Not Be a Blogger – A good post about why some people won’t make it as a blogger. Be sure to read it!
• 7 Guaranteed Ways to Reduce Your Blog Bounce Rate – If you want to reduce your bounce rate then follow the advice that Onibalusi is giving here. Very interesting article!
• Meet & Interact with Your Commenters – A short post about an interesting new WordPress plugin called “Meet Your Commenters”. Definitely looks interesting.

I hope you enjoy the articles I have listed above. Feel free to share some additional related articles.

Discussion: Important Traits of a Blogger

Since the first post is all about the traits you need to have as a blogger I thought of starting a discussion about it. What do you think are traits that you need to have as a blogger? What is important?

I personally think that passion is one of the most important traits you need to have as a blogger. But you also need to be persistent and keep trying out new things. If you are good at writing then this is definitely good but I don’t think that it’s a requirement as a blogger.

If you would like to get your articles featured here then be sure to submit them to MMO – Making Money Online social network as all of these articles have been submitted there at one point or another.

Here is What I Have Found For You Today on MMO Social Network

Google Adsense Articles

• Tips to Sky Rocket Your AdSense Revenue – I enjoyed reading this post because I think all the important points that you need to keep in mind when using Google AdSense.
• How Much Does Google Adsense Pay You? – This is a great article about how much Google pays you for every click the ad gets. If you are relying on Google AdSenseheavily then you must read this.
• Simple Changes Doubled My AdSense Revenue – This is another article worth reading on AdSense. The tips he mentions here are definitely worth trying out and also easy to incorporate into your websites.
• What’s Your Best-Performing AdSense Unit? – This is basically a discussion about what kind of AdSense units perform best. Definitely worth reading.
• Google Scams – Another nice article which talks about the typical Google scams and how you can really make money through Google AdSense.
• Increase Adsense Revenue: Google AdSense Revenue Sharing Sites for Backlinking – This is a hubpage dedicated to making money from Google AdSense. There is an interesting strategy that the author mentions to make more money and also to increase your traffic.

Internet Advertising Articles

• Tips to Get Your Website Noticed by Advertisers – I also enjoyed reading the post because I found the tips useful.
• Use an Automated Email Responder and Get More Profit -  This is a nice article by Andrew which explains the advantages of using automated email responders. Be sure to read it.
• The Best Content Spinner Ever – This article talks about software called “content spinners” which help you to get some new content by “spinning” your articles. I am not sure how legitimate the review is but it seems interesting.
• How to Get Your Business Online with a Shoestring Budget – This is a good post about how you can create your business online while only spending a limited amount of money.

Discussion: Making Money with Adsense?

In several articles I have mentioned above there is always the discussion of whether you can make money through Google AdSense. I have tried making money through it too but I haven’t been very successful. What do you think is essential to make money through AdSense? Have you built a website solely dedicated to making money from Google AdSense?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you start a blog and stick to the strategy mentioned then you are not going to get very far.

Let me tell you about my story!

My Story

I have been blogging for around two years now. At the beginning I was just in for the money. I had read on so many blogs that you could make money so easily through blogs that I thought I could do it too. I also thought I could simply create and promote content and everything would go from there, but it didn’t.

I have made $100 through my blog in around one and a half years. My blog really didn’t get any traffic at all when I started out. For almost one year I averaged below 10 visitors per day even though I spent so much time working on my blog.

Then came the moment when I realized that blogging the real reason why I was so unsuccessful: Blogging isn’t about making money. It’s about helping other people. It’s about connecting with people. It’s called being social.

It’s Not an Ego Trip

Blogging is not about staying to yourself. It’s about genuinely connecting to others. It’s not an ego trip. So let’s not make it one.

I believe that we, as bloggers, can create a great community. I mean there are so many people living and blogging all around the world why should we not try and accomplish something together?

Of course you can try to do it on your own but what good is it? Doing everything on your own without connecting to people is not going to help you get far in life.

I believe that what Hesham has created here at Famous Bloggers is a great community, a great place to start off. Why not try to take it to the next level?

EuroVision Song Contest

I recently watched the EuroVision song contest. I actually didn’t want to watch it personally because I thought it was stupid. It wasn’t until an hour into the show that I realized I wanted to do something similar that these people have done. The moment that changed me completely was the part of the EuroVision song contest I included below.

After I watched the show I felt united with all the people in Europe. After seeing all these people dancing together to the same song, people from different ethnic groups, with different backgrounds, different interests, I thought that we could achieve the same thing on our blog. You  make a difference on this blog.

How Do We Start?

Well a community lives from people giving without asking in return. That’s one of the most important principals, not only in blogging, but also in life.

Of course it’s hard to always keep that up but even trying to do so will make you that much more successful than any other person.

How You Can Make a Difference

There are lots of things you can do. Contributing to FamousBloggers would be one way of doing it. You can write guest posts if you feel like it. That way you will support FB so that he doesn’t have to spend as much time doing it. But you can also stick to other things.

For example whenever you notice a spelling mistake, or something that looks odd simply contact us. We would love to get feedback whether it’s negative or positive. These are small things but they make a difference.

Commenting

To comment on this and other blogs is also a great way to support our community. Simply say what you think. If you have found a thing or two that you think could be corrected on that blog then be sure to mention it, most blog owners are happy to get some feedback.

Especially with this contest I believe that it’s that much more important to simply give. Even though it’s a contest that doesn’t mean that you should solely focus on your own good. Try to help other people when you can, even if it might be only by commenting or retweeting their posts.

Care for other people and they will care for you. It truly takes courage to give without asking for something back in return, yet that’s all what it’s about. Let’s make Famous Bloggers more special than it already is.

By the end of the EuroVision Song Contest I truly felt like there was no winner. Everyone had won. Let’s make that come true about this blog and this contest.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
-Albert Einstein

What do you think? Do you think we can make this happen?

This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.

The reason I bought Miracle Traffic Bot in the first place was because it offered me an opportunity to automate my link building efforts. It submits articles and bookmarks to various websites automatically. That’s why I thought it would be interesting to use. 

I think it’s a bad purchase. The fact that even after buying it you have to navigate through 4 different sales pages speaks for itself.

Here are other reasons why I can’t recommend it:

Bad Coding

The software itself works fine but there are several things that are disturbing. First of all you can’t really configure it. You can only set a certain delay for posting articles. And here is where the software coder really seems to have missed the point. You can actually enter the delay in minutes and seconds. But for some reason you can’t enter a number of minutes higher than the number of seconds.

So you can’t enter 120 minutes and 0 seconds, it simply won’t accept the input. The only thing you can enter is something like 20 minutes and 20 seconds or 20 minutes and 30 seconds.

No Additional Directories

Another thing that is annoying is that you can’t even add new article directories or bookmarking sites to the software. You just have to stick to the small number of sites that are entered by default. I think there are around 12 article directories.

500 Word Minimum

One of the most annoying facts of this software is that you can’t seem to post articles that are below a length of 500 words. I have usually written articles around 250 – 400 word articles which means that I can’t submit any of these articles via Miracle Traffic Bot making the software completely useless for me.

Can’t Submit Different Titles for the Same Article

There is another thing I expected for Miracle Traffic Bot to include and that is the ability to submit different article titles for the same article, so that the post won’t be as intrusive for search engine. Miracle Traffic Bot lacks this feature too.

No Automated Account Creation

If you are already paying $77 for the software than I thought it would also make it possible to automate the account creation for the various websites. But it doesn’t offer this feature.

The positive side is that the software is easy to install and has a nice interface. But it’s still not useful in my opinion. That’s why I am going to ask for a refund. I can’t really recommend buying the software.

What do you think? Have you used Miracle Traffic Bot? What’s your experience?

I try to avoid posting articles from the same blog twice within a round up that’s why even if you have submitted many articles in the social media category on MMO I will only link to one of your posts here. Just thought I would let you know.

Here is What I Have Found For You Today on MMO Social Network

Social Media Articles

• Twitter Marketing: I Have a Million Twitter Followers Now What – I liked John’s article because he talks about what Twitter is all about. It’s about connecting with people and he explains it using good examples.
• Know Your Influence on Twitter – Klout – I enjoyed reading this article because it’s about Klout, a new startup. You could say that Klout basically calculates your influence on Twitter but this is not everything, it covers much more. Simply take a look at Shirley’s article.
• Social Media Revolution – Social Media Statistics & Facts – I really enjoyed this article. Basically it talks about 42 facts on social media (and also blogging). Definitely worth reading
• 5 Business Benefits of Twitter Even if Your Customers Aren’t On it Yet – This is a nice video about how Twitter can benefit your business. She covers all sorts of benefits such as SEO, word of mouth among other things. You need to read it if you aren’t onto Twitter yet.
• Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy? – This is an interesting article especially for people with a small business. I think almost every business can benefit by learning how to utilize social media and a social media policy is a good way to get started.
• Quick Tip: Learn How to Integrate Google Analytics with Hootsuite 5 – This is a nice yet small article from James on how you can integrate Google Analytics with Hootsuite.
• Gain Leverage on Twitter and How to Get More Traffic From It – This is a nice guest post on SmartBloggerz on how you can use Twitter more effectively and thus gain more traffic. Be sure to check it out.
• 10 Golden Rules of Social Bookmarking – This article is all about the rules of social bookmarking. The ten rules David mentions here are not only applicable to social bookmarking but maybe also to social media in general.
• Is Social Media a Waste of Time? – This is a nice video explaining how you can leverage social media to your advantage. Definitely interesting.
• 13 Mind-Blowing Facts on Social Media 2010 – Another post with some interesting facts on social media. Highly interesting.

Since all these posts are about social media I want to know from you whether social media has a big impact on your blog or websites? Do you get lots of traffic from social media websites? What is the best technique you have used to get more traffic from such websites?

Because of the feedback I got I want to change my weekly round up a little bit. I am going to add some information as to why I chose each article. Then depending on the topic I will also sprout up a discussion on a related topic.

Hit-and-run Social Bookmarking

There is a very important article I want to highlight today, it’s about the Hit-and-run Social Bookmarking technique that most of members are following, once they get theirs submission completed, they just run without checking what others submitted to the site, only a few members take the time to check the upcoming stories which is not actually published yet on the site, and it will not appear in the RSS feed because it doesn’t have enough votes, it will remain in queue for 2 days till we archive it, and this happen to a lot or your links!

So, basically what you are doing is you are wasting your time and effort, you are not getting a quality backlink or any traffic because your link will not reach the homepage! If every member did the Hit-and-run then there will be no published and promoted articles! and this is not what social bookmarking sites are about!

Plz, submit your article, tweet it using the “Post to twitter” link, check the other submissions in the upcoming stories and vote if you find it useful!

Here is What I Have Found For You Today on MMO Social Network

Marketing Articles

• Why Your Content is Killing Your Website – I enjoyed reading the article because it’s a somewhat different approach to how your content should ultimately look like.
• 10 Best Marketing Tips that Will Blow Your Mind – This article covers the basics of Internet marketing but also gives some in-depth insight into email marketing which I particularly enjoyed.
• Write Your Book – This articles covers 10 reasons why you should write a book at some point in your life. I liked the post because it shows you the benefits of being an author.
• Email Marketing: HTML vs Plain Text Emails? – I like the topic he talks about and also the content of the article which talks about what’s better to use HTML vs plain text. He also presents some very interesting ideas here.
• List Building – The Seven Best Methods – Here Andrew presents some good ideas on how you can get more people to sign up for your subscriber list. Definitely worth reading.
• Why Your blog is an Epic Failure – I enjoyed reading the article because I believe that there are so many people, me included, that make the same mistakes about blogging over and over again.
• 3 Biggest Mistakes That Newbie Affiliate Marketers Make – Raymond writes about what most people don’t do when they start to try and make money through affliate marketing. I have made several of the mistakes myself. It’s definitely worth reading.
• Robin Low: A Guide to Entrepreneurship – Basically the article includes an ebook about entrepreneurship which I think is very valuable. Take a look at it.
• Writing For Traffic or Visitors? Have You Been Doing It All Wrong? – I enjoyed reading Jack’s article. As the title suggests he talks about whether you should write for SEO purposes or with your readers in mind.
• 8 Ways Affiliates Can Benefit from Twitter – I enjoyed this article because it’s not the generic Twitter tools post. It talks about how bloggers can benefit from Twitter and is definitely worth reading.

My Criteria

To make this more interesting for you I want to talk about how I choose the links I include in my weekly round up. Generally I will include every article that I think fits to the topic I choose. For example this week I decided to stick with marketing articles.

There were some articles that didn’t have anything, at least in my opinion, to do with marketing and that’s why I left them out. I also look at the blog and how it is designed. The cleaner and the nicer the layout the more likely is that I am going to include your article in our round up.

Also note that one of the most important factors is whether an article is generic or whether it covers new ideas of approaching things.

What do you think? Do you like the changes I adopted to the weekly round up? What do you think should we change? And most important of all did you like the articles I included?

If you want to have your article mentioned here then be sure to submit your articles to MMO social network and bookmark site. This is a dofollow network that means that when you submit your link to it you will also get a link back from it.

Here is What I Have Found for You Today on MMO Social Network

Blogging Tips Articles

• Don’t Do These Bloggers – Or You Are Dead!
• The 3 Essential “Don’ts” of Guest Blogging – Make it Work For You
• Blogging for Beginners – How to Go About It
• Do You Consider Your Fellow Blogger to Be a Friend or a Foe?
• What is Your Number One Traffic Tip?
• 21 New Resources Covering for Designers, Social Media and Blogging
• Lack of Content is a Lazy Excuse
• 5 Things People Don’t Want to Know About Blogging
• Why Become a Video Blogger? A video blogging tip
• Do You Have a Donate Button on Your Blog?

What do you think? Did you enjoy all the articles?

I would like to hear from you what kind of topics you want to cover us soon? What are you particularly interested in?

Visit the MMO social network and submit your posts now!

The articles I mention here were all submitted to MMO social network. I picked the most interesting and relevant articles from MMO. Also notice that I don’t include multiple articles from the same blog. Start submitting submitting to our bookmark site if you would like your article to be included on our next round ups.

Here is What I Have Found For You on MMO Social Network Today

WordPress Articles

• Google Duplicate Content and WordPress – An Unresolved Problem
• 6 Useful WordPress Plugins for Businesses
• How to Build an E-Commerce WordPress Site in 5 Minutes
• How to Integrate Google Search in Your WordPress Blog
• WordPress Plugins You Never Knew You Needed
• 23 Websites to Submit and Promote Your Free WordPress Theme
• Dynamic Sidebar Plugin: Certain Widgets for Certain Web Traffic and Pages
• Platinum SEO Pack – The Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin
• 30+ New Useful WordPress Tricks and Hacks
• 20+ Basic Tips to Protect Your WordPress Blog

I hope these articles are useful to you. Have you already read any one of them? How do you like them?

Image credit: WordPress