I haven’t spread link love in a few weeks. The following links were my food for thought this week when I finally managed to catch up (somewhat) with my RSS feeder.

The Renegade Writer has two posts that had me going ‘hmmm’ for a couple of reasons.

The freelancer’s guide to getting paid reminded me of my unpaid invoice. 

5 Tips for creating an inspiring workspace got me thinking of ways I can set up my own corner. Right now, there’s a stack of books, papers, a phone and a lamp. I’ll post a pic up soon, and you’ll see that decorating skills are absent in me

Over at Freelance Folder, Laura Spencer shed light on the uncomfortable facts about plagiarism. Thankfully, I’m nowhere near being a popular enough blogger to be plagiarized. I agree that blogging success has nothing to do with plagiarism but I do believe that it reduces the chances of having your writing stolen.

Sean has the second place in my list of bloggers who I read religiously. As in every post and every word written by them that I come across. And my list is only 4 people long. His post, An exclamation point is like a promise made me stop and think about my own use of the exclamation mark. Do you use it too often? 

If you’re struggling with blogging (and the best of us do) head over to Confident Writing where Joanna tells us about 10 Things to do when you lose your blogging voice. 

What have you been reading online lately?

My vacation meant that my Google Reader had more than 1000 items collected for my reading, uhh… pleasure. I’m only just beginning to catch up on all my favourite blogs. It doesn’t help of course that they post so regularly!

This week, I’ll be linking to Copyblogger’s posts that I read word for word after coming back.

• Three Steps That Guarantee Every word of Your Copy Gets Read
• The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines
• Three Grammar Rules You Can (And Should) Break
• Two Ways to Say More With Fewer Words
• How to Be a Better Writer in the Next 10 Minutes

Those are five posts I’ve read every word of. Now if I can just use the information in them practically to become a better writer and blogger. That’s the toughest part. There’s so much information at the tip of our fingers that we leave the advice we just read in favour of reading some more.

I’ve rarely been able to put what I’ve learned into practice. Is it the same with you guys? Or am I the only failure?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, link love, Writing

This Sunday, instead of linking to a number of posts, I’m linking to a report by Chris Guillebeau.

279 Days To Overnight Success is for writers, bloggers and other online artists looking to succeed in their online ventures.

On a side note, I love the layout of the website!

Technorati Tags: Blogging, link love, Writing

Guest posting is a great way to gain exposure for yourself and your blog. It’s also stamp of approval from the blogger on who’s blog you’re posting. The readers of that blog trust you by proxy. You don’t have to work hard on proving your mettle.

If you’re already successful, guest posting is a great way to reach out to new audiences and establish your expertise.

This week, we’re going round up guests post on popular blogs.

- Write to Done is Leo Babauta’s (of Zen Habits fame) writing based blog. Marco Saric of How To Make My Blog wrote a guest post ‘How to Make Your Site go Viral on Twitter‘. That’s a pretty huge pat on the back. Leo has a huge following and if not many, Marco most definitely managed to gain some loyal readers through this post. Not to mention, he added a feather in his blogging cap. 

- Chris Brogan’s blog has over 21 thousand subscribers. Theses are just the RSS subscribers. On an estimate, add a few thousand more email and newsletter subscribers and that’s a staggering number to reach out to through a guest post. Jason Alba’s guest post “Handling Negative Comments on Your Blog Post“. The post received 52 comments and 6 track-backs. That is some serious exposure!

- A quick look at Shanon Paul’s Very Official Blog revealed that on an average, her posts receive 7-8 17 comments. That’s an decent awesome level of participation if you ask me. But it’s far from the big leagues. Her guest post “Six Very Official Ways to Improve Your Writing” for Pro Blogger was great exposure. 

Shannon’s been busy establishing a solid reputation for herself instead of concentrating on building a blog following. She’s been successful in it to a great extent as she got a mention by Chris Brogan in 8 Marketing Bloggers to Watch in 2009.

- Daily Blog Tips is one of Daniel Scocco’s babies. Daniel was one of the unfortunate bloggers who’s website got hacked. The incident raised a lot of security questions among bloggers. Mr I from Blogging With Success decided to expand on Daniel’s post about website security by listing 5 Plugins to keep WordPress Safe.

- Jonathan Muller’s guest post “How To Become a Better Blogger” for Yan Susanto’s Thou Shall Blog was very well received. Even though Jonathan’s blog hasn’t been updated since early February, it still has a lot of useful information for you to go through.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, guest posting, link love, Writing

You know how everyone says blogging requires passion? Well that’s not the only thing blogging requires. I’ll be expanding on this thought sometime later. For now, here are the links for your reading pleasure for this week.

The Writing Journey came back around the end of March writing about blogging. Bob tells us The Number One Rule of Blogging  and then went to takes on Copy Blogger. Nah – nothing that scandlous. Don’t Blog If You Suck At Writing disagrees with a guest post on copy blogger about how to be a successful blogger if you can’t write. Both sides raise valid points. Whichever side you agree with will largely depend on your experience of blogging

Daily Blogging Tips answered a question about blog commenting. Daniel responded with a detailed answer. Interesting read: When Do You Stop Commenting on Other Blogs?

Blogging without the blog went Smashing The Myths About Blogging for its two year anniversary. Barbara got it right on all counts. If there are other myths that you discoevered, do tell!

Blogopolis BluePrint is my new favourite blog. Apart from the usual content, Eric and Sean do videos – which is nothing new. But their videos are conversations. They’re two guys talking business and having a ball discussing their favourite topics. Doesn’t get better than that. In this video, they’re talking about The Highs and Lows of Blogging.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, commenting, link love, Writing