Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post… Apple Introduce new Talking iPod Shuffle

Yes, there’re pleanty of forums where one can be active in order to be part of a community and learn from each other. When I am away from work and blogging, I spend a lot of time on Yahoo Answers, DP forums, Sitepoint etc.

@Richael, I really appreciate the fact that you have been part of various online forums. And hey, I never thought about writing for upcoming blogs. You really brought in a unique point here… As you said, mostly people write on big blogs to get traffic and new readership but how many of us are willing to write for upcoming blogs?

@George, I am trying my best to help out people with whatever little I know

@old domains, wiki is definitely underestimated by many. As you said, there are minor mistakes here and there but the good thing is that it’s working on an ‘evolving model’ where things get corrected during the course.

@qarla, I doubt if a news sitemap is any different from a normal one. For self-hosted blogger blog like yours you may want to try a sitemap software gsitecrawler. I have never used such software though. One common mistake a lot of people make is to upload the blogger’s atom.xml as the sitemap. This may not add any value as a sitemap as many of the information that Google or other search engines expect from sitemap will be missing in that atom feed.

@Kurt, great man… Since your blog itself is dedicated to mauritius you can leverage that knowledge further by updating wiki topics related to the same. By the way, the other day somebody has enquired (on twitter) about mauritius for a holiday and I referred him to you

@Arun, mostly people apply for DMOZ editor post in order to get a listing for themselves I have done this as well initially before I realized the importance of that role… Even I got rejected twice

And you have a good point about free consulting. I usually answer two-three mails a day on blogging tips etc. Most of them tend to stick with you when they get some good free help.

@Harish, you are right about wikpedia… Even for me, it’s like a everyday habit to first search for wiki before anything else. As for the directories, DMOZ is mostly a collection of the authentic categorized services. Mostly an entry into DMOZ is considered great for a website.

@Kim, you are right about the free sites (especially .org ones). Sometimes for a good cause it makes sense to offer such services free. I was recently approached by a representative of a church in Bangalore to build a small site for them… Though I am not into that area, I was able to provide them some help on how to go about it.

And you are right about the other extreme of providing free help. Sometimes people take it for granted

@Nihar, wikipedia rocks! As for DMOZ, it’s not very easy to figure there but I was mainly talking about an editor’s job in DMOZ.

Thank you all for your view… Due to bad health conditions, my post cycle and comment moderation activities has taken a beating. Will come back soon…

I am surprised that lot of ppl don’t know about wikipedia?

I daily visit Wikipedia. It is one of my favorite sites.

Didn’t know about DMOZ. let me check.

Other free consulting can get tricky. I have times when I will answer questions on twitter but get frustrated when I am bombarded by questions when I am busy or at odd hours. I just try to tell myself that just because I am asked a question doesn’t mean I have to answer immediately.

Harish’s last blog post… 8 Effective Ways to Increase your Backlinks

I applied to DMOZ three times, got denied. Dont know what they are expecting from an editor.

And I do a lot of free consulting. Though it takes away lots of time, you will win loyal friends and readers. It helps in building the community around the blog. And its a good way to learn from others.

Kudos to this post and to you..
Arun Basil Lal

At times am also on some forums… time factor is a constraint however.

Kurt Avish’s last blog post… Yuri Gagarin Happy Birthday To The First Man In Space!!!

George’s last blog post… Mahindra Scorpio Refresh Launched

I also support the idea of volunteer jobs online. It does not only build your knowledge base, it may also improve your reputation and standing online. Taking Yahoo Answers into account, if you become a regular contributor in a particular topic, there is a huge possibility that people will appreciate your work and in return, spread your name/website name amongst his/her contacts.

Another pointer I would like to add is: writing voluntary posts for new upcoming blogs. Usually its the opposite; new bloggers write for well known blogs in order to build traffic and backlinks. But you, as an established blogger, can take time off to help the newbies to take off in their blogging career. If you can not write guest posts, another alternative is to announce the new blog via a post on your own blog. Give a share of your traffic to the new blog.

Richael Neet’s last blog post… The Blogging Park – Where blogging is fun!