Weblogs - Dream Tools

Weblogs inspire, motivate, educate, and help you act on your dream.

There are millions of weblogs that talk about every topic you can think of (and probably many that you can't).

Over the last few years, I've read thousands of weblogs, and I will recommend only a few that have consistently good content.

Your Recommendations

You and I may have very different ideas about valuable weblogs. I'll make a list here of the blogs I read on a regular basis and I invite you to create a list of blogs that help you.

If you submit the URL of your blogs list to the blogs section of the A Year From Now Forum, I'll link to your list of blogs on your site. Please, list only the blogs you find most helpful as you act on your dream.

Scripting News

I read Dave Winer's Scripting News weblog on a regular basis.

In my mind, Dave is the father of blogging. I know lots of people had a hand in it, but I've followed Dave and the products he developed over the years. I first learned about blogging when he called it Edit This Page.

My first blog, John Dilbeck and Friends was originally called John Dilbeck's Musings. Over the years, I've tested other blogging platforms and didn't really understand the power of this site until I lost it back in January, 2007.

Userland, a company that Dave created years ago and sold a year or so ago, has been hosting that blog for years at no charge. I was informed in December that I would have to pay to keep it alive. I don't mind paying, but I forgot all about it when Mom broke her leg in early December and I was making daily trips to the nursing home where she was undergoing rehab.

I was reminded that I hadn't renewed, but I waited too long and the site was deleted. That got my attention and I paid for a year of hosting. Eventually, I'll get the old contents restored (I hope), but I've put renewed energy into developing that blog over the last week or so.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I've been using Dave's products for years. From Clay Basket to Frontier to Manila to Radio Userland, I've built sites using the tools Dave and the crew at Userland.com have developed. I manage a dozen static sites using Radio Userland and also use it to power my blog located at I Succeed By Helping You Succeed.

In December 2000, I wrote about What Radio Userland means to me. You'll find it at the bottom of that discussion page.

Dave is one of the fathers of RSS, and considers it to mean Really Simple Syndication. His version 0.91 is widely used and version 2.0 includes the 0.91 structure. Other variations are not as friendly or as easy to use.

Dave is a man of great intellect, strong opinions, lots of fans, and lots of detractors. He is one of those polarizing personalities that make things happen around him. Love him or hate him, he gets things done.

I have learned a lot from Dave Winer and I still use the products he developed on a daily basis.

He's been talking about retiring Scripting News (after seven years of continuous blogging) and I'll miss reading it if he really does quit.

All his blogs are highly recommended.

ProBlogger

I read Darren Rowse's Make Money Online with ProBlogger Blog Tips weblog on a regular basis. I subscribe to his newsletter and subscribe to his blog's news feed so I don't miss anything.

I have learned a lot from Darren and I enjoy the material he covers and how he writes about it.

If you have an intention to earn money with your blog, you can learn a lot from Darren and the other bloggers he links to.

If you are a beginning blogger, I especially recommend his Blogging for Beginners series.

For more experienced bloggers, you will find many posts that contain valuable information, tips, advice, and opinions.

You may enjoy his 10 Steps for Writing a Successful Series on your Blog article. I think this advice could be useful for article marketing, too.

This blog is highly recommended.

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