Here is this weeks installment of the Links. This week’s version is a bit different as there is not much about the home office. What I found this week were tons of post and articles about blogging, social networking and social media. I hope you enjoy it. Why am I focusing on those topics this week? Because I firmly believe those topics are extremely important to your success as a home based business. Please leave your comments and if you provide us with some links for next week, you will get linkage back to your own Web site or blog.
Cook up something brilliant in your home office comes to us this week from Home Office Organizer one of the Business Channels from Sparkplugging.
I get questions from clients and people I talk to about how to get exposure for my blog. Here are 10 free blog directories worth submitting your blog to. The post is from hobo. What I like about this is the fact the services are free. FREE is good for those working from a home office as we try to control our overhead. Give them a look and let me know what you think.
One of the best ideas I saw all week came from a great blogger MIchael Martine who does consulting and coaching and post over at the Remarkablogger. What Michael suggested is to create a blog pack to get blog traffic and increase subscriptions. I joined a blog pack made up of a large group of us on twitter. What I am planning to do is start one here for bloggers who work out of a home office or “shed”. Be watching for details.
Another use of the web and social media I have been exploring is using video to communicate with our audience. Online Video Tool Kit is a FREE set of tools you can use to help you get started. I have watched them and plan to watch them again. They give you a great set of tips to get you started doing your own videos. The tool kit is provided by Jim Kukral, video blogger and veteran Internet marketer. Check them out. Jim recommends the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder and I do too. It is cheap, yes CHEAP and actually does a great job.
Google liberates the home office, Part 1-Gmail is the first in a series of post from a fairly new home office blog, Home Office Web Tools. I like this blog and this new series is just one example of why. As you all know from reading some of my recent post, I am a heavy user of most of the great tools Google offers. Gmail being one of them.
To continue on with the Google apps theme, Enhance your Google apps with Greasmonkey scripts comes from one of the first blogs that I read, Web Worker Daily. Right after I read this post last night, I took advantage of most of the tools mentioned. Still diving into using them. But, so far what I have seen they will help.
What I am always amazed at is how I am bouncing around questions and thoughts in my head about something to do with blogging, and Darren Rowse puts up a post to answer that question. I am not sure if I should be happy Darren helps to answer my concerns or questions. Or that I should be upset he beat me to the post. Happy has to be the thought. I have been blogging for over three years now and I still read Darren’s blog Problogger daily. 5 emerging trends in blogging was the blog post that answered one of my questions last night. It is one of Darren’s video post and it really hits home. And watching Darren’s video post is another reason we are planning to implement them Home Office Warrior and Blog for Profit soon. And be watching for a completely new design of Blog for Profit very soon. Along with a new ezine series and other features.
Why twitter matters comes to us this week from one of the mainstream media sources, Business Week. I don’t know what more to say. But be watching for some upcoming post on Blog for Profit and Home Office Warrior on using twitter to promote your business. I think there is a clear set of rules you should follow to successfully use twitter to actually promote your business. And a clear set of rules to not be overloaded with the amount of information you can get on twitter.
On a different note, and one I don’t agree with, ten reasons I won’t use social media sites is from Small Business Trends. I disagree with the position as I firmly believe if done right, following a set of rules you put in place, social media sites can be one of the tools you use to promote your business. And what really got my goat in the post was the statement, “real business people don’t use social media.” I guess those of us who use blogging, twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other social media tools just aren’t real businesses. We are living in a different world than our parents lived in. Even different than I and those in my generation have lived in before. Totally discounting the benefits of social media to a business is a short sighted reaction to something someone may not understand. And that is why I will continue to post about the advantages, tools and rules for using social media on our blogs. And the name social media is a whole other matter altogether too.
Finally, and another example of what is to come, apps like twitterFone signal the future. Fun application you can use with twitter.
Well that is it for this week, hope you enjoy it and find some useful information contained within. Get me your suggestions for next week before 10:00 a.m. on Friday and I will include them. And as I mentioned, you will get a link back to your own blog too.
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Guest Post by Alex Johnson from 
Here is this Friday’s installment of the links. Sorry about it being a day late. Busy with clients yesterday and just could not get to it. Remember to get me your suggestions each week for each Friday’s edition. And if you do, you of course get a link out from HOW.



