So, you’ve launched a blog and you’ve found the time to write some great posts. You’re seeing a trickle of visitor traffic coming through but you want to really step it up. What can you do?

Well, one great way of taking your blog traffic to the next level is to submit your blog posts to Blog Carnival. Successful inclusion of your posts in a blog carnival can drive increased and targeted traffic to your blog, along with securing good quality external referring links back to your blog. Sound good? Great. Ok, so first things first.

What is a Blog Carnival?

A Blog Carnival is a ‘best-of’ list of the current blog posts on a particular topic. These posts are published on the blog of the carnival host who selects those posts which include the most exceptional content on the chosen carnival topic.

The amount of traffic that Blog Carnival actually drives to your blog can sometimes be fairly modest, however if your post is selected as an Editor’s Pick (the top five posts listed in a blog carnival) then this can really increase your blog traffic. Successful inclusion of one of your blog posts in a carnival also increases the number of external referring links back to your blog. This is great for a number of reasons, not least of which is on-going Search Engine Optimisation.

So with this in mind, how can you get the most out of Blog Carnival? Here is my top five list of what to do to secure inclusion of your blog posts in a carnival and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) secure them as an Editor’s Pick.

1. Ensure that there is a thriving Blog Carnival in your niche

Firstly, check out Blog Carnival to make sure that there are live carnivals that match your blog topic. For example if you write a fashion blog, try searching for varying terms around the phrase fashion, such as ‘style’ and ‘clothes’ as well as ‘fashion.’ This makes it much easier to highlight the carnivals that are most suited to you and your blog and means that you will get the most of Blog Carnival.

2. Only submit posts that are in line with the Blog Carnival topic

When submitting a post to a blog carnival, it is crucial that the post is suitable for and in line with the carnival topic. Spamming blog carnivals with posts that are unrelated to the topic of the carnival simply means that your post will not be chosen for inclusion.

Here at Tinderbox Media we submit blog posts to blog carnivals for a number of our (very different) clients and always ensure the carnivals are suitable to the topic of our client’s posts. There would be no point in submitting articles from client A’s blog to carnivals suitable for client B, primarily because the focus of the two blogs is completely different, as is the intended audience and the posts would not be included.

3. When submitting a post, comment

Another way to improve your chances of success in a blog carnival is to leave a concise and informative comment about your blog post when you are submitting it. A short and interesting description of your post creates intrigue and encourages people to click through to the post. Alternatively, copying and pasting a particularly interesting paragraph from the blog post can work very well too.

4. Make sure your post titles (and content!) are fresh and interesting

Always make sure that your blog post titles and content are appealing to those who will be visiting the blog carnival. For example, if you are submitting a post to a SciFi carnival, try and think about the target audience of that carnival and what would interest those that visit the carnival. Short, snappy and intriguing titles along with fresh, topical content always encourage interest.

Similarly, just as it is important to update your blog regularly, it is also a good idea to submit suitable and interesting new posts to blog carnivals on a regular basis, to encourage loyal readership and raise awareness about your blog. It also means that you can create and maintain strong and positive relationships with carnival hosts in the hope of encouraging them to include your posts in future carnivals.

5. Link back to the Carnival

If your post is successful in a blog carnival, it is considered good n’etiquette to link back to the carnival in order to spread the word about that particular blog carnival. In order to do so, simply add “This post was selected for XXX Carnival (and a link to the carnival), hosted by XXX (and a link to the host)” at the end of your selected post. This again encourages strong relationships with carnival hosts; great for improving your chances of success in future carnivals.

So that’s my top five list of tips to bear in mind when writing posts for and submitting to Blog Carnival.

Always remember the two intended outcomes of submitting your posts to Blog Carnival: good quality referring links and increased traffic from interested parties, and you will soon be basking in your own Blog Carnival success!

I hope that my list of tips work for you too and if you find or know of any others, I would love to hear them!

Image: Paul Scicluna

Pubsubhubbub.

No, this blog hasn’t been hacked; nor am I typing gibberish. Pubsubhubbub, or PuSH as it also helpfully known, is a new protocol which is moving blogs into real-time.

PuSH allows services that subscribe to a blog, mainly readers like Google Reader, to get new posts almost instantly. So when you hit the publish button your post is pushed out to all your blog subscribers. Previously, RSS readers sent periodic requests to blogs, asking whether there were any updates and retrieving new posts. Inevitably this led to a lag between a post being published and subscribers reading it.

WordPress (the leading blogging platform) has installed this protocol on all the blogs it currently hosts (some 10.5 million; these are the blogs with the wordpress.com suffix) so that new posts from these blogs are pushed to blog readers. For those who use WordPress on self-hosted blogs (many million more), there is now a plug-in they can install to do so as well.

So now we’ve deciphered the  gibberish, what does this actually mean?

Well, it means several things; some good, some not so good.

The good

• Blogs go real-time. This is great as the lag between an event and your posted response has narrowed. You want your blog to be part of the debate before it is an obsolete trending topic on Twitter, or old hat with your colleagues, partners and clients.

• Share and share alike. Again the advantage of real-time feeds is that your readers can then go on to share a post they like within minutes on social bookmarking or networking sites, meaning your blog is central to the evolving discussion.

The not so good

• Publish and be damned! There is no going back now. If you have a WordPress blog or install the PuSH plug-in, your post is out there as soon as you hit the button. If you’ve made mistakes, want to change it around or retract part of it there is no longer a lag which allows you to do so before others read it.

• Reputation, reputation, reputation. If RSS readers are gulping down your posts at breakneck speed,  there is less time to respond if an issue that is damaging to your reputation, or that of your business, emerges and is circulated.

As bloggers, we are often instructed to think before we post. Now, it seems, that advice is more pertinent than ever.

Joel Turner is an account director at digital PR specialist Tinderbox Media.

Image credit: dark_ghetto28

Here are the slides from my talk, which I presented using Prezi (zooming presentation software). This is a simplified and abridged version of my talk, because I have removed a number of slides and because I’m not there talking over the top of it! However I have added some notes and my essential argument is extant. In a nutshell: you may have good reasons for having a business blog, but that doesn’t make your business blog good. I highlight some common pitfalls and propose some simple measures, considerations and ideas that should help turn those marketing theories into real-life business benefits.

[prezi width="600" height="400"]http://prezi.com/gjuuudkyycyd/view/[/prezi]

If you aim to improve your company’s online visibility and/or performance, and you can make it to the next ThinkVisibility conference, I recommend the trip. Just look at the feedback for the last one.

EDIT: For some reason the Prezi isn’t showing up in some readers. Clicky to view.

For the uninitiated: WordPress is an extremely popular blogging application, with good reason: it is free to use, easy to customise, jam-packed with great features and is at the centre of an enthusiastic and helpful  blog community.WordPress is regularly updated and the latest version, WordPress 2.8.4, went live in August 2009.

Official advice has been issued: WordPress has advised all users to upgrade to its latest version. Bloggers are posting  about ways in which hacked blogs can be identified and remedied. However if you are fairly new to blogging, or if your blog was set up for you by a third party, you may be left scratching your head. Perhaps you haven’t upgraded your WordPress before now, or perhaps you aren’t that familiar with the nuts and bolts of your web hosting control panel. MySQL? Database backups? If this is the case, this quick guide is for you. All you need is Firefox and a “can do” attitude.

What happens to your blog if it is attacked?

Two things. Firstly, your blog suddenly gains one or more new “Administrators”. These are users with powers to write, edit and publish posts, add/delete new features and change settings. For obvious reasons, you don’t want strangers to have this kind of access…

Secondly, your permalinks change. Permalinks are the URLs for your posts. For example, the permalink for the post that you are reading now is as follows:

WordPress users affected by an attack are reporting that their permalinks are altered to something like this:

http://corporateblogger.co.uk/2009/09/05/wordpress-under-attack-how-to-protect-your-blog-when-you-dont-know-mysql-from-my-little-pony/%&(%7B$%7Beval(base64_decode($_SERVER%5BHTTP_REFERER%5D))%7D%7D|.+)&%/#comment-506929

Or something like this, when it wasn’t the permalinks structure previously:

http://corporateblogger.co.uk/2009/09/05/p=22?

A hobby blog of mine was attacked in the early hours of this morning: two mysterious new Administrators were added, and the permalinks were changed to the latter format. When site visitors tried to click through to other posts on the blog – via links to “Featured Posts” in the sidebar, for example – they were taken to blank pages. The same applied to would-be visitors who attempted to click through to the blog via links on other websites.

How can you tell if your blog has been affected?

1. What version of WordPress are you using? If you aren’t sure where to look, you will find the version noted on your WordPress blog’s dashboard. The “safe” version is 2.8.4; any previous version is considered vulnerable. However don’t presume that you are out of the woods if you have 2.8.4 already, especially if this version has been installing during the past few days.

2. The obvious one: click around on your blog and take note of the permalinks. Is all as it should be?

3. Go into your WordPress dashboard. Go to the Users page. (The link is top right on WordPress 2.5 and in the left sidebar on later versions.) The users will be listed and categorised as Subscribers, Editors, Administrators etc.,with a number in brackets next to each category at the top of the page/. The Administrators are the ones to look out for. Does the number of Administrators cited in brackets exceed the number of named Administrators on the page? If so, your blog has been attacked.

What should you do next?

There are two schools of thought here. The first is that you should upgrade to 2.8.4 before you do anything else; however, if you upgrade while your blog is affected, you aren’t going to rinse out the hack – you will simply carry it over to the new version.

So you can upgrade + rinse, or rinse + upgrade. Your call!

This is what I did with my affected hobby blog:

1. Deleted all unfamiliar Subscribers.

2. With that Users page open in Firefox, I followed the advice given in this excellent Nachotech post: I went to the View tab at the top of the page and selected Page Source, which pops up all the page’s HTML code.  If the cited number of Administrators is mysteriously high, it is because new Administrators have been added to your blog, alongside a clever piece of Javascript that ensures that the new Administrators do not show up on the Users page. You’ll be able to see them on the HTML though.

Scroll down until you find an unfamiliar username. It will appear in a block like this:

</script></div> </td>

<td><a href=’mailto:’ title=’e-mail: ‘></a></td>

<td>Administrator</td>

<td class=’num’>0</td>

</tr>

<tr id=’user-27′ class=”alternate”>

<th scope=’row’ class=’check-column’><input type=’checkbox’ name=’users[]‘ id=’user_27′ class=’administrator’ value=’27′ /></th>

<td><strong><a href=”user-edit.php?user_id=27&#038;wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2Fusers.php%3Frole%3Dadministrator“>KeithDick77</a></strong></td>

<td>…

KeithDick77? Who he?

The next step: to copy and paste the line of code that I have highlighted in bold, into a URL that begins http://wp-admin/. So in this case , with the mysterious KeithDick77, the url would be as follows:

http://wp-admin/user-edit.php?user_id=27&#038;wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2Fusers.php%3Frole%3Dadministrator

When you do this, the unwanted Administrator’s settings page will pop up. You can then change their role from Administrator to Subscriber, thus removing of their powers. Also delete the gobbledygook in the “First Name” field; this is what removed the Administrator’s name from view in the first instance.

Before saving these changes, you’ll have to enter an e-mail address and a new password; any old rubbish will do. Once this page has been saved, you’ll be taken back to the Users page. You will be able to see your new user now. Select that user, and delete the profile.

Repeat as necessary, until your numbers of Administrators tally with one another.

One last, but important point here: “wpnonce” may sound like it’s a hacker’s nickname. It’s not; leave it be.

All done. Now what?

Two further steps, as suggested in the comments section of this post by Andrew Wee, are to rename a couple of your WordPress files in the hope that these actions minimise the chances of a repeat attack.

You will be able to access your WordPress file via your site’s web hosting control panel (usually cPanel). You will need a separate username and password to get into the control panel; if you do not appear to have these and your blog was set up for you by a third party, that third party will be in possession of these details.

Once in, open up File Manager and scroll down to two entries: wp-register.php and xmlrpc.php. Rename both of these.

Okay. So this upgrading malarkey..?

The WordPress guide is here. If you are using an older version of WordPress, you won’t have the automatic upgrade button that appears on the dashboards of newer versions. This means that you have to do a manual upgrade which, if you aren’t aren’t literate with the language of databases, backups and directories, can come across as a daunting prospect.

The solution is deliciously simple: it’s a plugin called WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Download it here. Install it on your blog.

(If you do not know how to install plugins: it’s easy if you are using WordPress 2.6 or above. An option to add plugins can be found in the sidebar. With older versions, you’ll need to install the plugins manually: here are some instructions.)

The great thing about this plugin is that it does all of the hard work for you, step by step. It makes backups of your database and files and downloads them to your hard drive. It deactivates all your plugins, and reactivates them once the newest version of WordPress has been installed.

Activate this plugin, begin the upgrade – and please note that as you go along, it will provide you with various instructions. Download this; click here – that sort of thing. Follow these instructions to the letter.

Voila! You are upgraded. I used this plugin on that hobby blog earlier today, to go from 2.5 to 2.8.4. It worked a treat, with no problems whatsoever.

You should always make backups before upgrading your WordPress. For this reason I’d recommend using this plugin even with later versions of WordPress; it does the backups and the downloads for you.

Moving on

If your site has been affected, read the WordPress hacking FAQ and consider implementing other recommended measures.

Please note that the guidelines outlined above describe what has worked for me. They may not be complete. As further details of the attack and its solutions emerge, I may well be updating this post. If this post does not solve your blog problems, do check out some of the other posts to which I have linked; these may help. Who knows? We may not have seen the last of this one.

Don’t forget to change your permalinks back to your preferred format! You can do this via the Settings option in your dashboard.

From now on, upgradeupgradeupgrade! Always make sure that your version of WordPress is up to date; the latest version is usually the most secure.

Further reading: WordPress’ head honcho Matt has produced a detailed post about the worm and the importance of upgrading.

I hope that this post has been useful.

From The Times:

“Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled yesterday.

“In a landmark decision, Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an order to protect the anonymity of a police officer who is the author of the NightJack blog. The officer, Richard Horton, 45, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, had sought an injunction to stop The Times from revealing his name.”

It isn’t the first time that the newspaper has outed a popular blogger. NightJack has now been deleted in its entirety, which is a shame because it had been going for a while and it was a great blog. Its author provided an insider’s view of the police force; often eye-opening, sometimes jaw-dropping and always an interesting read. Earlier this year, NightJack won the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing, which speaks for itself. (At the winner’s request, the prize money was donated to the Police Benevolent Fund.) It will be missed.

There is growing criticism about The Times‘ decision to track down and name Detective Constable Horton. The newspaper’s defence of its action appears to centre upon its allegation that NightJack featured details about real-life prosecutions – even though the details of these cases were changed and anonymised – and that the blogger’s exposure was in the public interest.

The judge in the case, Mr Justice Eady, isn’t new to high-profile privacy cases: last year he ruled that the News of the World‘s had breached Max Mosley’s right to privacy after revealing details about Mr Mosley’s sexual predilections. This, however, is what he had to say about bloggers (from The Times):

“In the first case dealing with the privacy of internet bloggers, the judge ruled that Mr Horton had no “reasonable expectation” to anonymity because “blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity”.

“The judge also said that even if the blogger could have claimed he had a right to anonymity, the judge would have ruled against him on public interest grounds.

“The police officer, the judge said, had argued that he should not be exposed because it could put him at risk of disciplinary action for breaching regulations. But Mr Justice Eady criticised that argument as “unattractive to say the least”.”

The corporate blogs that I work across all promote the expertise and insights of named, bona fide individuals. But anonymous bloggers have been fair game for years: remember when there was a hysterical (and ultimately unsuccessful) race to unmask the author of Belle du Jour? (UPDATE: since outed – ah well, it was a good run.)

Now that the High Court has rubberstamped such witch hunts, it’s more important than ever to bear in mind that, if you blog under an assumed name, you should think very carefully about what you publish. The majority of bloggers (Belle du Jour is an honourable exception) can be tracked down; even if you have cloaked your WHOIS  entry, your posts may throw out small clues to your identity. Girl With A One Track Mind, who worked in the film industry, provided occasional crumbs of trivia about her jobs. She was identified after a journalist ran the accumulated information through IMDB.

Image credit: davidsonscott15.

A blog can benefit your business in many different ways. Here are a few of them:

1. By creating a personality for your brand. The blog will give your brand a public face (or faces), bringing your brand to life and increasing its appeal.
2. Because people prefer to do business with those they know and trust. Social media is all about dialogue, interaction and engagement. Readers will develop a rapport with you and your brand. The blog will encourage interest and increase trust in you, your products and your services.
3. By attracting prospective customers. The blog will be keyword-rich and regularly updated. Others will link to it. As a result, it will become more prominent in search engine rankings for keywords and phrases – generating an increased volume of traffic from prospective customers.
4. By positioning and promoting you as an authority in your field. The blog, with its sparkling prose and cogent observations, arguments and ideas, will sharpen your competitive edge by elevating your status as an industry expert.
5. By promoting your products and services. The blog will be a relatively low-cost and effective way of promoting your products and services to prospective customers within a specified geographical area, or across the globe.

One final point: if you are considering a business blog, or if your web company has suggested the same, spend some time trawling the web. Look at the other blogs that have a foothold in your industry; check out your competitors’ websites, to see what they are offering. Don’t be surprised if you find that many of these sites feature dull, dusty old blog pages that were tacked on with the sole aim of boosting search engine rankings.

Don’t make this mistake. A blog that is interesting to read, edited to a high standard and full of fresh ideas and observations gives you an edge and is likely to be more effective at generating new business, because you can draw upon the SEO benefits and keep your readers and prospective customers coming back for more.

At Tinderbox Media our business blogging service is increasingly popular. In future posts I’ll be exploring each of the above points in greater detail, drawing upon experiences and real-life case studies. Subscribe to the Corporate Blogger RSS feed (bottom right) to receive all the latest updates.

Image credit: websuccessdiva.