I have to confess that, once again, this is a blog that I have been watching for some time. I have noticed a definite theme developing in terms of the blogs that have won the Blog Of the Day Award. Almost without exception, they share certain characteristics … the best word that I can find to summarise these qualities is that they are all engaging, and that’s very true of today’s winner.

Looking at previous posts on today’s winning blog, we find good use of pictures and graphics. As far as content goes, there’s a nice mixture between internet marketing, associated topics and some personal glimpses. These definitely tell a story and they do it simply and eloquently. The latest blog post details the anxiety of preparing and shooting that important first video.

A link to the video itself would ensure even more viewers, especially because of the freeze-frame image that it would have, though this is a very minor carp on my part ! But do click on the link to see it on YouTube because it’s well worth it ! I think that this is probably the best video that I have seen by any of my fellow students so far.

Not only is it different and novel, but I found it charming and captivating. And there are double digit comments on the post that agree with me.

So, for all of this – but especially for that video – today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to Melanie Steeden for www.melaniesteeden.com.

Congratulations Melanie, your Blog Of The Day badge is on its way !

Today’s winner was one of the first blogs that I looked at when I started my coaching with Alex Jeffreys. At the time, I remember being mightily impressed and having revisited it several times since then, my initial feelings about it have only been strengthened. This guy is one to watch.

I like the look and feel of his blog, though I know that for some a black background is a bit of a turn-off. Personally, I like it in this context. However, as regular “BOTD” readers all know, whilst good looks are important to me, they are definitely not the only thing that I’m looking for.

One of those other things is great content and this guy gives really high quality information both in text and video form. One of the other things that I like is that it’s primarily a blog about blogging … the longer I study this subject, the more I’m convinced that it is key to successful marketing online.

I know that this is not his first blog and the fact that he’s got tons of experience in this arena comes through in what he does here. However, he’s also used this blog as a platform to launch a great series of videos on how to “do” WordPress blogs. I’ve had a peek at this and I have to tell you that it’s excellent.

I know that he’s already earning good money from his blogs and he’s been very up front about his goals. My guess is that he will exceed them.

Matthew Wolfe is definitely one to watch, and so is his blog, matthewwolfe.com.

Congratulations Matt, your Blog Of The Day Award badge is on its way !

First, I like the look of her blog … but (and I have to be ruthlessly honest here) I’m not quite sure why ! It’s clean and sleek and not too cluttered. Always good things in my humble opinion. But whenever I visit, there’s a logical part to my mind that says, “That header shouldn’t work …”

But it does ! I don’t know why, but I love it !

Second, the content is great. It’s written in a lovely, conversational style that I find very engaging. More importantly, there’s good value there too.

Third, it’s clear from reading her posts that she’s really “getting” what Alex Jeffreys is teaching his students. Not only does she discuss this, but she also describes what she’s learned and how she’s applied it.

Which brings me to the “clincher”.  As a confirmed tech-head, I am a bit loath to even countenance the idea of outsourcing the workings of my blog, my “baby”. But I realise that as my internet business grows, this is something that I will probably have to consider in the longer term.

So when I read today’s winner’s article about outsourcing via eLance, I was naturally intrigued and ultimately reassured. Not only does she explain the why’s and wherefore’s, she also explains how she went about it and the results that she got (which we can now see so clearly). She even gives us a recommendation.

So for all of these reasons, today’s winner is Karen Kalata for her post about outsourcing on karenkalata.com.

Congratulations Karen, your award badge will be with you soon !

Where do we begin with this guy ?

Well, he’s pretty well up on WordPress, the ultimate tool for serious bloggers. Check out the WordPress Blog Assistance tab on his blog. On more than one occasion, I found myself consulting his blog for details of how to do some of the more basic things that newby bloggers need to do, like setting up a gravatar or the “widlink” widget supplied to us by Garry Parkes.

And he’s prodigious in his output. Only last week, Alex asked him to develop an idea on blog copywriting. Within a week he has produced a series of videos that are about to go on to YouTube. Personally, I can’t wait to see them. Oh and if you check out his blog entry about these videos, you’ll see the names of some of the top dogs in internet marketing that he’s worked for. Social proof or what ? !

Another thing that I’m eager to find out is exactly what numbers he makes at the end of Alex’s traffic contest. I figure that this blog is going to be at or very close to the top of the heap.

Add to all of this the fact that the tone of his writing is enthusiastic but not overwhelming, and it’s personable and sincere.

So today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to Rob Canyon for escapetoprosperity.com.

Congratulations Rob, your Blog Of The Day badge will be on its way to you shortly.

Yesterday was crazy, rather like Thursday last week. I won’t bore you with the particular details of why I was so busy, but suffice it to say that a load of “stuff” came up that needed to be dealt with immediately. Naturally, that squeezed the rest of the day’s time, so I had a decision to make.

Do I go to the supermarket to re-stock the supplies in my fridge and food cupboard, or do I press on and finish building my “PPP” for Alex Jeffreys’ Marketing With Alex 2.0 course ?

Well, because my new internet service provider shut me out for the first two days of our contract a couple of weeks ago, I have been playing catch-up ever since and I was determined to actually finish what I had started. So the “PPP” won that contest and it is now live !

(If you’re not one of Alex’s students and want to know what a “PPP” is, please go ahead and take a look at mine now.)

So, what were the consequences of this ?

Well, first of all, I’m losing weight ! (LOL – I must get to the supermarket today.)

Secondly, I felt really guilty about not blogging !

In truth, I do have a couple of draft posts up my sleeve, but by the time I got around to thinking about posting, it was so late that my mind was rather dulled. Although those posts were half-written, they still needed “tweaking” and I figured that I wouldn’t produce my best prose whilst out on my feet. So I decided to let it go for one day.

So after the frustration of yesterday, today it was great to came across a little tip that has not only given me something to write about, it’s also solved a problem that’s been bugging me since I started to blog. And although a lot of folks will say, “But that’s obvious !”, some others may find it a useful tip.

I have been wanting to use images in my blog posts almost from the word “go”. But for some reason, I have just never quite managed to get WordPress to co-operate with me. Basically, it seems to me to be a two-step process …

1. Add your image to your blog’s “gallery” using the Upload/Insert icons above the Add New Post toolbar.
2. Insert it in to the post.

Simple enough ? Well again, I won’t go in to the boring details, but it was the second of these that I just couldn’t figure until today. I discovered that the trick is to use the keyboard short-cut Alt-Shift-M. (Obvious, huh ?) I’ve used this technique to update an old post and you can see the result here.

It may not seem like much to experienced bloggers, but for me, it’s a tasty little victory

The next challenge is to add that video that I’ve had ready for a week ! Watch this space …

If you haven’t noticed, I’m referring to the box in the sidebar to the right. I’ve signed up with Feedburner, which is a part of Google. (How did we ever manage without them ?)

Feedburner is a nifty service that will hook in to your blog’s RSS feed and then send it via email to subscribers. Typically, these are people that prefer to have content delivered by email, or who maybe can’t reach blogs directly through their browser because they’re behind a firewall that prohibits access. I guess it also means that you could read the blog content offline after you’ve downloaded it on to your email client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or whichever program you use.

From the blogger’s point of view, Feedburner can also provide you with all sorts of stats about what’s happening to your feed. I have to admit that I haven’t even checked these yet, but I look forward to seeing how popular this facility becomes.

If you’re a blogger, you may want to look in to Feedburner so that you can provide another way for people to get your blog content.

Why not try it out now ?

But today, I’m going to make an exception.

I’ve already written that I am totally stunned by the quality of the blogs being produced by my fellow-students on Alex Jefferys’ Marketing With Alex 2.0 training programme. In fact, there are so many really good ones, sometimes it’s hard to keep up !

But anyway, one of those blogs is by David Walker. Over the weekend, I saw that he’d posted a piece with a humorous title: Something For The Weekend.

He also commented on the high standard of blogging that Alex’s “Class of ’09″ was producing and went on to highlight 10 blog posts that he had particularly enjoyed that week.

As I read David’s post, I thought to myself, “Yeah, I saw that one, that was cool !” and “Yes, I saw that one too” or “Oh, I missed that, let me check that one out …”

But then I got to the last one and was totally amazed to discover that it was mine !

Yes, David had included my “Doctor” Alex Jeffreys gives his diagnosis post in his top 10 !

Well, as I told him in my comment to his post, I was (almost) speechless. But I was “chuffed” to bits

Only problem is, it just adds to the pressure ! I mean, like I said, the standard of blogging is so good ! And I know for a fact, that other students have latched on to David’s idea and want to “make it” in the same way. Lol !

I guess the flip side of that is that it makes us all strive even harder to deliver good content for your readers. Because, in the short time that rog-blog.com has been here, I have realised that this is possibly the key factor to producing a successful blog.

So David, thanks for the accolade. I’ll do my best to keep doing my best

Many of us now have our own personal blogs up and running (like this one) – unfortunately, I’ve only had the chance to look at a few of these. I know that my last post mentioned the importance of good content, and of course that’s still true. But some of these blogs just blow me away with their look and feel. I’ll put up a little widget shortly that will provide links to some of the others, so check them out.

The other great thing emerging is the sense of community amongst the students. Some are complete newbs to the online world, whilst some of us have been using computers since before there was an “online world” ! (Ahem … no names here !) Some of use strange machines like Macs or even Linux (yes, that’s me !). Some don’t know their FTP’s from their ABC’s whilst others have TCP/IP running in their veins.

BUT … one of my favourite sayings is that “We’re all stupid about something !” (Guilty on several counts, Your Honour !)

And when you realise this, it feels good to be able to help others along, because you know that you’re going to benefit in areas where you have a blind spot. For me, it used to be blogging, although I am slowly getting up to speed on this one.

The area I’m most in need of help in at the moment is Twitter. (You can follow me at twitter.com/rogblog). Some of the guys from the first group have some good resources on this, so I’m looking forward to learning more about it.

Meanwhile, there’s more to do, so I must get to it …

Well at the moment, this is more of a “personal journey” type of blog. Specifically, it will narrate my adventures in Internet Marketing under the tutelage of Alex Jeffreys. I’ll say a little more about this on the About page when I come to write it shortly.

I’ve set up a couple of blogs elsewhere before now, both for myself and for others. There’s such a lot of good technology to get your teeth in to with WordPress blogs (yum !).

Which theme shall I use ?

Which are my favourite plug-ins ?

How does it look ?

But the thing to always remember with blogs is that it’s content that matters above all else. That’s what I’ll be aiming to put here, so watch this space !