DISQUS

I think that the best option is to schedule posts for the absence. I must say I don't care for posts saying someone will be away. If the options is just a gap of 4 weeks or a post saying the person will be gone for 4 weeks, the gap is fine with me. Some people might feel differently but that is my opinion.

These focus popular links sites can be great. The key is getting a community that is active and sensible. The hardest part for very focused topics is building a large enough community that voting provides a valuable input (if only a handful of people vote it doesn't do much good).

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Lindsays last blog post..Alcohol is a Major Cause of Drug Rehab Admissions</abbr>

I agree doing both is great. I started out blogging for fun and to try and provide useful information to help others. Now I am trying to make some money to allow me to cut back and maybe eventually just work for myself.

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Lindsay @ Drug Rehab Blogs last blog post..The Discovering Alcoholic</abbr>

I agree. Here is the preceeding post on my RSS feed: One Wrong Way to Get Links. There appears to be an epidemic of those who want to spam, emailing the blogs they want to spam by mistake. I guess the caliber of people that you can hire to spam comment for you might not be that high.

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Lindsay´s last blog post..Brett Favre Overcomes Painkiller Addiction</abbr>

Yeah that is crazy. There is plenty of over-hype by bloggers about how you can get rich easily. But the idea that they are dead is not accurate at all. Now if you want to say 95% of them are dead yeah that is true. Just look how many blogs don't have a post in the last 6 months. But blogging is alive and well for those that are willing to commit to it. And yes, as you mention, you can reach a point where other methods of communication might be better suited for much of what you want to communicate. That doesn't mean blogs are dead.

Great post and accurate. I don't really like the drug dealer analogy but it seems to be working for you. The most common advice bloggers need to follow is to create great content: I think too few bloggers focus on creating great content. Once you have a stable of great content then focus on expanding your reach.

Interacting with other bloggers can be key over the long term.

The focus on fear is disheartening. I especially find the "6 common household items that may kill your child - News at 11" announcement annoying. To me those practicing such methods have lost credibility. They have cried wolf too often.

Good post, thanks for the link to that useful site.

:) That site is awesome. The results are great. But really it is too much work - they need a really lazy option where you just select like 3 or 4 things and it generates it for you (with random choices by theme or something).

Gmail is spam free. I find it by far the best spam filter I have ever used.

Lindsay @ Addiction Rehab Centers Blog's last blog post..National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month

Excellent post. There are tons of posts talking about similar topics but this gives simple realistic advice. It shouldn't be a secret but that you need to provide something of value to readers seems to be lost on many. And the idea that creating such articles is a way to long term results is a key, I think. Too many focus on extremely short term results and get frustrated when they don't immediately see huge benefits.

Lindsay @ Addiction Rehab Centers Blog's last blog post..National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month

I would suggest a separate page for the directory links. Some of the directories page ranks seem lower than currently listed on the sidebar. Thanks for the links.

Lindsay @ Addiction Rehab Centers Blog's last blog post..National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month

Good post. There certainly is lots of useless "advice." Finding useful blogs is a great step toward making your blogs successful. One reason I think the good stuff is passed by, by many people, is that the useless stuff sounds easier. Those that real offer value don't promise just do these 2 things for 3 weeks and you will be rich.

Addiction Rehab Centers Blog's last blog post..Robert Downey Jr. Rehab Success

Thanks, great photos. One thing I like about blogs is the personal connections that are shown (like this post).

The concept of ads don't bother me. Only bad ads (mainly flashy animated ones - or ones that make noise) really bother me and will lead me to try and avoid the site. I may be a bit biased since I have my own web sites with ads but I understand that those that are working to create content I like may want to be paid. Some ads can even be useful.

Scott Adams.

Great post. To many people suffer with joyless jobs for too long. Here is a great cartoon on the topic: http://www.jsayers.com/thingpart/thingpart5.html

John Hunter's last blog post..Teaching Children About Money Matters

The recent study of wines and prices show that people do indeed judge things to be superior just because they think it cost more.

A wine's high price adds to its pleasure, study finds
John Hunter's last blog post..Real Free Credit Report

Good luck. Being your own boss is a great reason. Of course that has its own huge host of challenges but at least you get to decided how to tackle them.

Good news and what is to be expected at some point. My guess is this a too soon for a real significant improvement in the market. Even for lower priced stuff. But one of the things that will likely happen as the market starts to turn around is people that just want a place to live start buying. And then the numbers of those people start to put a large dent in inventory.

My Curious Cat Management Improvement Dictionary might also be of interest.

Exactly right. I find the attempt to quantify the unquantifiable annoying. Yes I can understand you might want an expert for a position. Number of years can sometimes be helpful (but I would say under 1% of the time that it is used in hiring). The same for college degree. all things being equal I can see using measures like college degree and number of years, but almost never are all things equal.

Admit that you have to use judgment in hiring and then do so. Try to do sensible things to make your selection more effective over time but I doubt you will find any evidence that screening on years of experience helps.

For more see: http://management.curiouscatblog.net/2006/10/07...

Thanks for the update. Just over an our to episode number 3 of this season!

John Hunter's last blog post..Don?t Use Performance Appraisals

I use both Google blogsearch and technorati (and technorati more frequently) but the last month or so I have been using icerocket the most. Icerocket has room to improve but with technorati being so slow so often I actually prefer Icerocket to both Google blogsearch and technorati now). But all could be much better.

I think Google is being smart in playing this game (trying to make intelligent arguments that support their interests) for what they can. I don't really buy the risk though. I wish Yahoo (and AOL for that matter) had done a better job so there were more strong very large internet players. As it is I figure Microsoft is making a very wise move. And while people like to criticism Microsoft (including me) they do pretty well. They couldn't make several billion dollars a quarter if no-one found any value in what they do. And they should be worried. I use Ubuntu, Open Office and MySQL (which are free excellent alternatives to Microsoft's biggest money makers). And I think many more will follow to those or similar products in the future.