Photo by ^riza^. I had one of those days today where a few things coalesce to make you think about a particular topic. First was listening to John Gruber (DaringFireball.net) and Merlin Mann’s (43folders) SxSW talk on blogging. There are a lot of good tips buried in the talk if you don’t mind the two personalities, particularly on focusing on an obsession, adding value and differentiating your content. Most interestingly for me, they discussed the concept of an ‘ideal

I’m starting to get really excited about the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge that starts next week here on ProBlogger. I’ve been busily writing a lot of the teaching and assignments for it already and am excited to see that well over 4300 people have signed up as registered participants (I suspect we’ll get well over 5000 before it launches next week). I’m also pretty excited to announce that those who register will be given access to a special forum discussion

With work underway with the Google/WordPress Summer of Code which includes work on the native gallery system within WordPress, let’s not overlook some of the WordPress Plugins which have taken the bare bones of the WordPress gallery feature and turned it into magic. Some of these gallery Plugins were hard at work presenting images on photoblogs and art blogs long before WordPress came up with the gallery feature and Media Library, so they have a long history of helping WordPress users

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. ~ Mark Twain Are you bringing the lightning with your copy? Or are your words more like a lightning bug, seemingly cool but without the true power of its namesake? The English language is so rich with vocabulary that you’d be hard-pressed NOT to find the right word for any situation. But there’s a difference between choosing the perfect word and

I’ve moved most of the WordCamp and WordPress Event information off the Blog Herald WordPress News and will be posting updates and news here and on the WordCamp Report. Upcoming WordCamp and WordPress Events include: March 2009 The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress March Meetup - March 28, 2009 The Chicago WordPress March Meetup - WordPress Plugins - March 28, 2009 Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta WordPress Users Group Meetup - March 28, 2009 North Carolina - Greater Charlotte Area WordPress

This post was written by Seth Waite, an avid blogger who currently writes for Blogging Agenda. It’s my favorite month of the year as college basketball is in full swing and “March Madness” has got me thinking. I love sports and many of my best experiences have come from what I learn playing them. Realizing the many lessons I have learned from participating in sporting events I recently asked myself, “How has sports taught me to be a better blogger?” I will answer this question with