Bloggers Social Networking Resources – More Traffic to Your Blog

Want more exposure for your blog, your website, or just you? Then here is my assembled list of social network places which you can join so you can find more friends, find your old friends, make friends, share stories, photos, videos, news or more. However, I am going to tell you now, pick few only. Definitely you will not be able to maintain them all. I think it can really become addictive and you can spend hours and hours without accomplishing anything or accomplishing everything. So here we go, all I could find is listed below, and if you have any I have not listed here please share. Not to offend anyone, I put this is list in the alphabetical order.

A
Advogato - is an online community site for developers of free.

B
Bebo – is a social network web site.
BlackPlanet – is an online social networking site targeted especially for the African American community, as the name speaks for itself.
BlinkList – is an online link manager.
BlogCatalog – is a blog networking platform.
Blogger – is a blog publishing platform from Google.
BlogLines – is a web based news aggregator for reading syndicated feeds using the RSS and Atom.
Buzz – is currently re-buzzing; check-in in the near future.

C
CafeMom - is an ad-supported social networking website for mothers.
ClassMates – is a social school networking platform.
CoolPhotoBlogs – is a social networking web site for blogging photographers.

D
Delicious – is the biggest database of bookmarks in the universe that can be shared among users. DesignFloat – is a social media web site for design industry.
Digg – is a social news website where content from anywhere on the Internet is shared by link submission; voting and commenting makes stories more popular.
Diigo – is a research tool and a knowledge-sharing community.
DZone – is a free link sharing community for developers.

E
Eons – is a social networking site for baby boomers.

F
FaceBook – is a social networking for friends, family, and co–workers, to stay connected and to communicate.
FreeWebs – is a free web hosting company hosting personal and business related.
Friendster – is a social network service.

G
Google Bookmarks – is a free online bookmark storage service which is available to Google accounts; this service allows bookmarking favorite websites, adding labels, tags and notes.

H
Hi5 – is a social networking web site.

I
InterNations - is an international social network service.

J
Jaiku - is a social networking, micro-blogging and life streaming platform from Google.

L
LibraryThing - is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists.
LinkedIn – is a business oriented social networking platform mainly used by professionals.
LiveJournal – is a blog publishing platform from Microsoft.
Loaded Web – is a social networking platform for bloggers by geographical location.

M
MiGente – is an online social networking site targeting Latino community.
Mixx – is a social media web site for submitting or finding content based on interest and location; a combination of social networking and bookmarking.
Multiply – is a social networking service which allows the users to share media such as photos, videos and blog entries.
MyChurch - is a Christian social network.
MySpace – is an international social interactive networking website where users gather with network of friends, share their personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults.
myYearbook – is a social networking site.

N
Nasza Klasa – is an online social school networking web site for Polish community.
Nature Blog Network – is a network of bloggers associated with nature.
Netvouz – is an online social bookmark manager.
Newsvine – is a social news website.
Nexopia.com - is a Canadian social networking website.

O
Orkut – is a social network service from Google.

P
Propeller – is a social news aggregator operated by AOL-Netscape.

R
Reddit – is a social news website where users can post links to content on the Internet.

S
StumbleUpon – is a social news website where users can post links to content on the Internet.
SlashDot – is a technology related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a touch of ‘nerdy’ slant.
SquiDoo – is a topic sharing web site.

T
Tagged – is a social networking web site.
Technorati – is a blog related search engine tracking popular stories and link relationships.
ThisNext – is a social portal of great product recommendations and personalized shopping suggestions.
Twitter – is a social networking for friends, family, and co–workers, mainly to stay connected and to communicate.
TypePad – is a blog publishing platform for professionals and small businesses.

W
WordPress – is a blog publishing platform from WordPress.

X
Xanga – is a website that hosts weblogs, photo blogs, and social networking profiles.

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: April 27, 2009

Blogger Blog Posts to eBook Publishing or Conversion Idea, a Proposal to Google Team

The Blogger or web blog was a great invention and implementation. We bloggers around the world can now communicate, share our stories, share our photography, share our hobbies, write fiction & novels, educate, connect with others and have fun. And yet we need more – we want to publish our posts electronically or in print - that is make eBooks.

Proposal: Blogger Posts to eBook Publishing
In here I would like to propose a project to Google Blogger Team - Blogger Posts to eBook Publishing – the online software which downloads Blogger posts into text & image type template ready for printing or digital publishing in PDF format eBook. There are similar tools like that already, but I have only found one book making software which allows downloading of posts from Blogger, WordPress, LiVEJOURNAL(TM) and TypePad®, into the textbook format eBook. However, there are limitations – conversion to PDF [Portable Document Format] is very poor, a format that is very universal and widely used by many thus called portable.

Background Research: Current Available Book Making Software on the Market
I spent endless minutes to search for book making software that would allow me to publish my Blogger posts into eBook. The following listed below are excellent tools, however, they do not offer much of a flexibility to create PDF eBooks from the blog posts. They are free software, however, you must purchase created eBook through their service.

Blurb BookSmart(TM)
Software – free download
Layout Types - portfolio, photo book, wedding, guestbook, cookbook, yearbook, journal, text & photos, text only, poetry, blog to book, blank and more.
Output Formats – BookSmart(TM) format, PDF with watermark, uses PDF convertor, however very little detail provided how to.
Comments – despite of very lame conversion to PDF format, software is excellent and highly recommended.
Web Site – http://www.blurb.com/

MyPublisher
Software – free download
Layout Types – photo book, calendar, cards
Output Formats – MyPublisher format
Comments – recommended, however, no blog to book feature, and no option to save as PDF format; also a bit slow
Web Site – http://www.mypublisher.com/

PhotoInPress BookDesigner
Software – free download
Layout Types – photo book with text
Output Formats – BookDesigner format and ability to print to PDF [Adobe Distiller]
Comments – very basic software
Web Site – http://www.photoinpress.ca/

Lulu
Software – online, must register
Layout Types – anything you can imagine
Output Formats – must find out
Comments – excellent online book making or other
Web Site – http://www.lulu.com/

Have I done my homework? I think I did, unless I didn’t use correct keywords to search for book making software. However, don’t be surprised with Blurb SmartBook(TM), they offer some amazing formats and layouts if you want to publish, print and share your content.

View an example of my eBook I manually created in MS PowerPoint – Story Blob Stories

Process Flow from File/Blogger Post to eBook
[Step 1] Run Google Book Making Software
[Step 2] Choose Book Size & Style
[Step 3] Create Cover Page, back and front, and insides
[Step 4] Choose Layout [text only, text & images]
[Step 5] Choose Theme
[Step 6] Upload Content from My Computer or Blogger
[Step 7] Insert Page Numbering, Additional Footer Information, Header
[Step 8] Edit (Change Layouts of Individual Pages, Insert more text, Insert images, Page Numbering, Footer, Header)
[Step 9] Generate Table of Contents
[Step 10] Generate Index, Tags, or Keywords
[Step 10] Save as PDF

Optional Processes for Selling and Printing
[Step 12] Submit to Google Bookstore
[Step 13] Find Local Printer
[Step 14] Request Print Copy

Libraries [optional]
[1] Library of Preset Layouts / Ability to Create from Scratch
[2] Library of Preset Themes / Ability to Create from Scratch
[3] Library of Fonts
[4] Library of References – add references database to be used in the eBook

Benefits
[1] One happy blogger – me, and probably many more out there.
[2] Reduced shipping / international charges to the end customer because ability to find local printer.
[3] Due to better printing equipment for end customers, printing companies are closing down. This may open new on demand printing options to small printing companies.

Conclusion
To summarize all above, the request is simple, ‘idiot proof’ book making software, reliable, fast and automated that has ability to pull out files from My Computer / Blogger and generate an eBook, just like Blurb SmartBook(TM). However, in my case I rather pay for the software, than have free software and pay for each print. We are nearly digital society, so let’s save some trees, thus digital copies, or print copies on demand.

Dear Blogger Team:
I hope you can review my proposal and consider adding this item to your project list. Should you need any help, you know where I am. As you can see this is not a new concept, however, may be excellent new addition to Google Labs. Thank you.

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: March 10, 2009