Top 15 Stars of the Week, November 19

I love the different statistics that Google hands out, and the Google Reader has several, so I decided to use a different screen shot this week and post the graph for time read. If you haven’t looked at them yet, there are several different graphs available in the “trends” section of Google Reader.

This week has been a little more quiet than the past few weeks. In part it might be the upcoming holiday here in the U.S. that had several of the frequent article writers looking for a little relaxation.  There were so many posts to choose from this week, but these below are all good reading.

This Week in Review

There is still a lot of chatter about the PageRank system of course, and a new twist was with the release of a new TLA code, see my article TLA Changes Code, Says Refrain From Paid Links Text where it looks like the battle rages on between TLA and Google.

Another added component this week was a few articles that were written that talked about PayPerPost now being on the hit list for Google. I haven’t read to much about the issue quite yet, but the article, Use PayPerPost? Watch your blog PR drop to ZERO explains it pretty well.

Upcoming Holiday Week

I myself and going to try and use this week to catch up on some other projects and take some time off for Thanksgiving. I am working to implement a CMS blog of sorts in a niche craft market using a great WordPress Theme by Brian Gardner called Revolution (using the Magazine version), which I hope will be ready early next year. It looks like a great theme to work with and hopefully I will have some time over the holiday to dig into the code a little bit.

So, lets get on to the top 15 stars of the week.

Top 15 18 Stars of the week of Nov 12th-19th

5 Tips for Show Top Commentator Plugin Usage

via Wayne Liew Dot Com by Wayne Liew on 11/12/07

Today I am going to write about a popular plugin which most of us might be using, the Show Top Commentator plugin by Nate Sanden. I will not be reviewing about it since it is a known fact that the plugin is

The Problem with Waffly Headlines

via Copyblogger by Sean D’Souza on 11/12/07

Headline writing is an art, right?

No it’s not. But you can’t have waffle.

So how would you define waffly-headlines? Waffly headlines have terms like this:

Does your office have workplace-stress?

What Topic Would You NEVER Blog About?

via Everybody Go To by Hyder on 11/12/07

We all have our favorite blogging topics be it Technology, Web Startups, Making Money Online, stuff about Blogging itself, among many others. But there are always a few topics that every blogger

Wanted: Bloggers for Hire

via Blogging Tips by Elaine Ramos on 11/12/07

Blogging is more than just a hobby, it is now considered as an income generator.

Aside from having blogs which has high traffic, one could be a “blogger for hire”. It means that you could be hired as bloggers for different topics provided that you would meet the requirement needed

17 Creative Link Building Ideas : Please Add Your Own

via Search Engine Journal by Miles Price on 11/12/07

For a follow-up to the post on link-building techniques, I’ve decided to take some articles off of my compilations for creative link-building ideas on the Search Marketing Wiki. I hope you enjoy these ideas for more and more are coming — Feel free to add any ideas you feel

Would you buy adverts on eBay?

via TameBay by Chris Dawson on 11/12/07

An interesting twist has come to light regarding the adverts eBay are testing on the site in search results.

eBay are consulting website owners to gauge their interest in paying for the adverts and gathering information on the likely take up rate and the amount users may spend per month.

A Basic Guide to WordPress Template Tags

via Randa Clay Design by Randa on 11/12/07

Recently a reader asked how to add the time of a post to a theme, so I thought I would give a basic overview of WordPress template tags. This is one of those things that seems like it must be really complicated, but actually isn’t.

How to Transform Readers Into Raving Fans

via ProBlogger Blog Tips by Skellie on 11/13/07

In this post regular contributer Skellie from Skelliewag.org explains how you can turn readers into fans.

The notion of ‘raving fans’ brings to mind a screaming crowd at a Beatles concert. For bloggers, a more accurate version of a ‘raving

WWLD? No. 2: Keeping Connected

via 43 Folders – by glassdog on 11/14/07

Our great friend, Leslie Harpold, passed away in December of last year. In addition to being a swell pal and an old-school web mandarin, Leslie was an endless source of advice and opinion on practically everything.

How to Attract Comments on Your Blog

via bluejar.com – the webmasters guide to the galaxy by Sarah on 10/17/07

Photo by greggoconnell.

My blog is a little over 3 months old and right now I have a total of 107 posts with 1,091 comments. I have tried a lot of things to attract comments on my blog, many which have worked out well and

A No-nonsense Guide To Clearer, Sharper, And Better Writing

via Blogging Bits by Mohsin on 11/12/07

A great idea wrapped in flimsy writing is a waste of words.

On the other hand, an average but clearly expressed thought enjoys more attention.

Why bother about good writing practices, you ask? You are a blogger, not a would-be author of the next best-seller.

Do You Thank Your Stumblers?

via Caroline Middlebrook by Caroline Middlebrook on 11/14/07

I’m sure many of you enjoy the benefits of large volumes of traffic from StumbleUpon, but do you take the time to find out who gave you those thumbs up and stop to thank them? If not, then read on to discover why you should.

[on a side note: you have to go read her follow-up to this post and see the emails she received by doing this post. They were not nice!]

How I Make Money Blogging

via ProBlogger Blog Tips by Darren Rowse on 11/14/07

Every now and again I give readers an update on how I’ve been making money through blogging over the last few months.

It’s been a over six months since I last did it and a number of things have changed since that time – so I thought

My Blogging Advice To Connect With Your Readers

via Shoemoney – Skills To Pay The Bills by ShoeMoney on 11/13/07

First of all if you are reading this site for blogging advice you are at the wrong place. problogger is hands down THE blogger and has the best advice and reads.

Improve Your Productivity with the 80-20 Rule

via Winning the Web by Gyutae Park on 11/14/07

Have you heard of the Pareto principle? If you haven’t, you’re missing out on a key business idea and may be working inefficiently for little gain. This is a principle mentioned in Timothy Ferris’ popular book, 4-Hour Work Week and is extremely relevant in online business and

Using Google Webmaster Tools with Go Daddy

via Google Blogoscoped by Tony Ruscoe on 11/14/07

The Google Webmaster Central Blog recently announced that Google and Go Daddy were working on a pilot together so that Go Daddy customers could more easily access Google Webmaster Tools.

Here’s how it works:

Who is Blogging and Why? Is the Blogosphere in a Digestion Phase?

via Read/WriteWeb by Alex Iskold on 11/15/07

Last week Marshall and I attended the Blog World Expo conference. The gathering, held in Las Vegas, drew over 1,500 bloggers from different parts of the country and overseas. The conference

Savings is Sexy

via W Revenue dot Com by Scott on 11/18/07

Everyone reading this blog wants to make more money, but once you get it, do you know what to do with it? Let’s face it, most people don’t have any savings and if they do, it’s maybe a few thousand dollars. That’s not necessarily because they can’t save, or because

Conclusion

I think that about wraps it up for a week of starred items. If you are not familiar with this post, each week on Monday’s I post an article called Top 15 Stars of the Week. In this article I review the web happenings from the week before and post some of the articles that I starred in my Google Reader from the week before.

I hope you enjoy reading these articles, or at least marking them for later reading. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.