Start Working Early

Starting on your work when you have a whole day ahead of you can be a huge psychological boost. You may find that you are less stressed when you give yourself lots of time to get your work done and have a brighter outlook on the day. Whereas starting later can leave you feeling out of time and behind on your work, leaving you frazzled.

Regardless of when you wake up and where you work, getting an early start will be helpful. If you work from an office you won’t have to worry about being late or traffic on the way in, and the pace is likely to be more relaxed where things could pick up later and get hectic. If you work at home, get up before the rest of the household and start the day with some uninterrupted work and time to yourself. For those people who live alone starting early will still give you an extra boost of productivity. Later on you will be able to wrap things up feeling good and without scrambling to finish your projects.

Manage Your To-Do List

Having a to-do list can definately help keep you organized, but when it grows from a cute little list of three or four items into a monster with 20+ things to grab your attention problems can arise. Try to keep focused on just a few tasks at once and organize your to-do list accordingly. You can seperate it into immediate and long term tasks and then further with major and minor ones. If your list starts to balloon don’t panic, just stay focused on completing the most important immediate tasks and then you can worry about moving on to a few more.

Manage Your Time

Now that your to-do list is under control you know what to do, but now the challenge is when to do it. Managing your time effectively is just as important as knowing what you need to do. Some times doing a few things at once works out

Your time can easily get out of hand

and is just necessary, but consider setting aside some time to give your attention to a single task for a while. Using blocks of time like this to work on your most important and immediate tasks can help you power through what needs to be done with great focus and speed. If waking up early leaves you behind still, time management like this can still get those important tasks completed on time.

Lay Out Your Plans for Specific Tasks

Organization is key. Knowing the steps you want to take before you even start a project will save you time and headaches down the line. Whether you write down the steps you plan to take for a large project or give a little bit of forethought to something smaller, effectively managing your projects is a prime example of how planning leads to success.

Don’t Get Distracted

Distractions are the bane of productivity, because they are by definition things that divide your attention, preventing you from focusing on your task. Working at a computer all day distractions are close at hand with just a few clicks. Games, recreational social media activities or interesting articles can all pull at your focus very easily if you let them. Especially when you’re using things like Twitter or Facebook for work you should be careful not to get sucked in. A good idea if you can is to set aside time for these possibly distracting activities, check your Twitter once each hour or twice a day depending on what your requirements are and then leave it alone otherwise.

Don’t Take on Too Much at Once

It is unlikely that at any given time you will have only one project on the go, and that is certainly a good thing, but make sure you don’t take on more than you can handle. Taking on fewer tasks and focusing more attention on them will enable you to work more effectively and efficiently. This will lead to projects being completed more quickly and maybe even with better results than if you had too much on your plate. You should still be able to keep working on the same volume of projects overall just completing individual jobs faster and then moving to the next. If you find your days are stressful and chaotic and productivity is suffering, take a look at how much you’ve taken on all at once and see how cutting back a little bit works for you.

Pomodoro!

Taking breaks can be just as important as working diligently. If you’re in the zone and flying through things keep it

POMODORO!!

up, but when your attention starts to wane or you hit a block try getting up and taking a short break. The Pomodoro System of taking breaks, named after a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato) , revolves around 25 minute work periods with 5 minute breaks in between them, followed by a longer break every 4 pomodoros. Taking time to get refreshed will let you get back to work with unparalleled zeal!

Avoid Clutter

Keep your workspace organized. Go through everything in and on your desk and decide if it has a place in your working area. If you work at home make sure you have an office space that you keep organized where you can go to do your work, seperate from the rest of your life if at all possible. Some things that you might not think about uncluttering are your computers desktop, bookmarks and email account, but these things can have a big effect on how you work, how you feel and give you that feeling of being more organized.

Have a Stopping Point

Having an end in sight can be very motivating when it comes to getting work done. When a task seems like it will just go on forever its very disheartening and can lead you to look for things to distract you. Keeping the end on the horizon helps keep you movitaved and on task but will keep you from working too long which can be unhealthy. If your schedule changes from day to day don’t worry about keeping your end time the same every day, just set aside enough time that you can comfortably complete what you need to do and plan your stopping point around that.

With a priority on work during work time and keeping a balance between intense focus and short breaks you will find that your efficiency rises dramatically and projects move much more smoothly. So enjoy your new found time and relax when you can.

About The Author:

George McConnell is the head writer for Traffikd.com and really likes social media! He is a full time internet entrepreneur and currently writing “That Social Media Book”, focusing on the history and effects of social media on internet and real world culture since its inception.

In this post we’ll look at 9 options for creating your own social network. Some are free options, and others are paid options that may be more appealing depending on your situation.

Ning

With Ning you can create your own social network very quickly for free. If you’re serious about building the site into something significant you can upgrade to a paid version with more features.

BuddyPress

For WordPress users, BuddyPress may be an attractive option. With BuddyPress you can turn a WordPress MU installation into a social networking site.

Pligg

Pligg is a common choice (open source)  for social news sites, such as Sphinn and Design Float. Pligg gets criticized frequently for the poor security at Design Float, but the site doesn’t show any signs of being actively managed, so it’s hard to blame Pligg for that.

KickApps

KickApps is a paid option that will allow you to build a social network with a lot of features. Pricing starts at $39.95 per month for the smallest plan.

CrowdVine

CrowdVine allows you to create a simple networking site for your group or organization. There are both free and paid options available.

CollectiveX

CollectiveX will allow you to create a social site for your group, organization or association. There are several different packages available including a free plan. Paid plans start at $9 per month and there are several premium features that you can add on for an additional fee.

Drupal

Drupal is a popular open source content management system that can be used to create social networking and social media sites. Design Bump, a social news site for the design community, is built on Drupal. There are a number of modules that can be used for building a social networking site with Drupal, here is a list.

Elgg

Elgg is an open source option that was created specifically to power social networking sites.

Dolphin

Dolphin is another free, open source option. It includes features like photo sharing and video sharing, among others.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have any experience working with any of these options, please share by leaving a comment.

The Winning Way is a checklist 500+ proven internet marketing strategies. Gyutae shares his knowledge and expertise by briefly covering each topic (the book is well over 100 pages long). Despite the length of the book, it is very easy to read. Gyutae even offers a guarantee for his free e-book. If you do not find at least 3 new ideas in the book, he is willing to pay you $50 (see the details of the guarantee).

I downloaded the book last night and have read through most of it already. I recommend that you visit his site and get your own copy of the free e-book. With his guarantee you really have nothing to lose.

Part of attracting visitors to your website is knowing what topics are hot and what people are seeking. Whether you’re studying trends to find potential topics for content to target social media, or whether you’re wondering how you should optimize your pages for search engines, trend-tracking tools can be incredibly helpful.

The resources listed in this article are all free, and they go about tracking trends in a variety of different ways. Try to find a few that you think will be able to help in your own work with your website or blog.

Google Trends

Google trends provides data on search phrases that are hot.

MSN A-List

MSN A-List provides information on popular topics, people searches, and rumors.

AOL Hot Searches

AOL Hot Searches is similar to MSN A-List with a variety of information on hot topics.

Lycos 50

The Lycos 50 lists the top 50 search phrases of 2008 on Lycos.

Most Popular Searches from Search.com

Search.com popular search list provides a quick way to see what is popular at the moment.

eBay Pulse

The eBay Pulse shows what items are selling right now, and which items are being watched the most.

Tops Searches on Ask.com

Ask.com also has it’s own list of top searches.

Amazon’s Best Sellers

Amazon’s Best Sellers list includes various categories and can provide a glimpse that may be helpful, especially for affiliate marketers.

Amazon’s Movers and Shakers

Amazon’s Movers and Shakers may not be the top sellers, but they’re the products that are gaining the most in terms of ranking.

Amazon’s Hot New Releases

You can follow Amazon’s Hot New Releases list to stay on top of the latest products that are of broad interest.

Top Searches at Shopzilla

Shopzilla provides some useful information that shows what shoppers are searching for.

Alexa Movers and Shakers

Alexa’s traffic rankings are far from perfect, but the Movers and Shakers list may help you to identify some current trends.

URLTrends

URLTrends will provide a trends report based on a particular URL.

POPURLS

At Popurls you can quickly see what is doing well at a large number of social media sites.

Techmeme

Techmeme is a constantly updated site that publishes links to tech news.

Technorati Popular

Technorati’s Popular page will show you some current trends of the blog world.

Ice Rocket Trend Tool

Ice Tocket’s Trend Tool will letter you enter a word or phrase (or multiple phrases) to see how often it has been mentioned on a timeline.

Wall Street Journal’s Most Popular

For finance-related content, Wall Street Journal will show you what’s popular.

New York Times Most Popular

The New York Times also provides a look at popular searches on its site.

Keyword Forecast – Microsoft AdCenter

Keyword Forecaster from Microsoft AdCenter forecasts the impression count and predicts demographic distributions of keywords.

Google Zeitgeist

Google’s Zeitgeist is the collective effort of other Google trend tools mentioned in this post.

Google Trends for Websites

Enter a URL and Google Trends for Websites will show you where it’s visitors are (geographically), other sites that they visit, and other searches that they perform.

Google Insights for Search

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.

SEOmoz Popular Searches

Updated once daily, SEOmoz’s Popular Searches is an aggregation of popular search queries gathered from various sources across the web.

Hitwise Widgets

Download a Hitwise widget to bring the latest online trends to your desktop.

Techmeme Leaderboard

The Leaderboard at Techmeme shows which sites are mentioned most frequently on Techmeme.

RSSmeme

RSSmeme shows popular blog posts that have been shared.

Friendfeed Top Links

See which pages are being linked to the most by Friendfeed users.

Trendpedia

Trendpedia lists popular search phrases and also lets you compare trends of multiple phrases.

Yahoo! Buzz

Yahoo! Buzz is a social media sites, but it’s better than Digg or the other major sites for seeing what news is truly popular at the moment, although not all industries and niches are represented.

Truemors

Truemors allows you to follow news and rumors.

Alltop

Alltop links to popular sources of content in a wide range of topics.

Twist

Twist allows you to see what is being mentioned on Twitter.

What Are Your Favorite Resources?

Which of these sites do you use? I’m sure there are others that could have been included on this list, so feel free to mention them in the comments.

Currently there are a number of excellent blogs that cover various aspects of internet marketing. I thought it would be worthwhile to put together a list of some that stand out as being among the best sources of content.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend subscribing to all of them because of information overload. I would recommend subscribing to those that cover topics that interest you most, and areas where you’re looking to learn more. I’m sure there are others that could have been included, so feel free to leave your favorites in the comments.

General Internet Marketing:

The blogs listed here will provide information and content on a variety of aspects of internet marketing. Some are large and very well-known, while others are a bit smaller.

Entrepreneurs Journey

Yaro Starak is a very successful internet marketer and blogger. Entrepreneur’s Journey is his blog where he posts a good bit of content related to making money online. He has also developed successful products and services in addition to affiliate income, so he is highly qualified on the subject.

Dosh Dosh

Maki doesn’t post as frequently as he used to, but Dosh Dosh is still a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about making money online. He is a social media expert, and some of his content focuses on related subjects. The archives at Dosh Dosh are full of high-quality content.

Net Profits Today

Net Profits Today is the blog of Rosalind Gardner. She covers all kinds of topics related to making money online and marketing a website. Her blog currently has over 40,000 subscribers. Rosalind also offers consulting services and a few products.

PluginHQ

Glen Allsopp is a very experienced social media marketer, and he has a lot of knowledge of internet marketing in general. His site used to be ViperChill but it was recently re-branded to PluginHQ. In addition to being extremely knowledgeable, Glen is very approachable and one of the most likeable bloggers in the niche.

Marketing Pilgrim

Marketing Pilgrim publishes a lot of posts from multiple authors. The topics covered include social media, reputation management and search. Marketing Pilgrim has established itself as one of the leading blogs in the industry.

TopRank Blog

With several new posts per week, TopRank Blog covers SEO, social media, and other internet marketing-related content. The site just reached it’s 5th anniversary and it has grown to about 15,000 sbscribers.

Winning the Web

Gyutae Park’s blog Winng the Web is one that’s worth following for general internet marketing and make-money-online content. He publsihes a few posts each week and the content is rather original, covering topics in a way that many other blogs in the industry do not.

Invesp

The Invesp blog covers a varierty of internet marketing-related content, and they recently compiled a list of the top 100 online marketers from 2008. The are several different authors that write for invesp, so you’ll get a variety in terms of areas of expertise.

Caroline Middlebrook

Caroline Middlebrook’s blog is enjoyable to read because it is part of her journey as an online marketer. Caroline often writes about what she’s learning through her own experiences and it has a very real and practical feel for readers.

Sugarrae

Rae Hoffman, aka Sugarrae, covers topics like affiliate marketing, blogging tips, and some social media. She is a well-respected blogger in the industry and her blog has almost 3,000 subscribers currently.

We Build Pages

We Build Pages publishes almost daily. Most of the content currently is written by Lisa Barone, but other authors contribute as well. Topics include SEO, social media, blogging and general internet marketing.

Carl Ocab

Carl Ocab is still a teenager, but he already has established himself as one of the top bloggers in the make-money-online niche. He’s got over 13,000 subscibers currently, and he ranks very high on the first page of Google for “make money online.”

SEO:

Most internet marketers are very interested in learning more about SEO and staying up-to-date on the industry. Fortunately, there are a number of excellent SEO blogs.

SEOmoz

SEOmoz is one of the leading SEO consultancies and their blog is also a leader in the industry. There is a new post published on most days on some topic related to SEO. There’s also some good social media-related content throughout the archives.

SEO Book

Aaron Wall is one the most well-known and respected SEO experts, and he maintains a blog at SEO Book. Aaron’s blog posts are very practical, and it’s a must-subscribe-to blog if you’re looking to learn more about SEO.

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land churns out a lot of search-related content throughout each week. Some of it is industry news and other content is informational for those who want to apply better SEO practices to their own websites.

Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Journal publishes multiple posts on most days by several different authors. Like Search Engine Land, some is news-related and other content includes tips and resources.

Small Business SEM

Matt McGee’s blog, Small Business SEM, includes a few posts per week of search-related content. The blog has been around since 2006 and currently has over 3,000 subscribers.

Bruce Clay, Inc.

Bruce Clay, Inc. is an SEO and internet marketing firm. Their blog has been around since 2004 and consistently publishes quality content on SEO and related topics.

SEOptimize

SEOptimize provides SEO services and also publishes plenty of quality content on the blog. There are several posts each week from a team of writers. Currently the blog has over 1,600 subscribers.

Search Engine People

Search Engine People is a Canadian search marketing firm that also provides a useful blog. Posts are informative and helpful and they generally draw a lot of feedback from readers.

SEO Scoop

Dazzlin’ Donna’s SEO Scoop was sold in November to Search Engine People, but she is still posting at least for now. The site has been around for five years and has over 2,000 subscribers.

SEO 2.0

Tad Chef’s SEO 2.0 blog is a must-read for SEOs and social media marketers. Tad’s approach and his writing is very unique, which is difficult to do in a crowded industry. Tad usually takes a strong stance on issues and writes posts that are interesting and informative.

Blog Storm

Patrick Altoft of Blog Storm is an SEO and social media consultant through Branded3. At Blog Storm he publishes content related to his areas of expertise. Blog Storm launched in 2007 and has over 4,000 subscribers.

Wiep

If you’re looking to improve your search engine rankings through link building, be sure to check out Wiep’s blog. Wiep provides some great content on the subject, and he also regularly links to the best posts on other blogs that relate to link building.

Social Media:

Personally, one of my favorite topics is social media marketing. From the blogs listed here you’ll get content that will show you how to market your own websites and blogs, plus you’ll get some general news related to social media and social networking sites.

Techipedia

Social media consultant Tamar Weinberg publishes her thoughts on social media and more at Techipedia. Tamar has been a contributer at top blogs such as Lifehacker and Mashable, and she has established a strong profile throughout the social media industry.

Brent Csutoras

Brent Csutoras is another leader in the social media industry that provides a useful blog to follow. Some of Brent’s content is news-related, such as developments with Digg, Reddit and other major social media sites, and some content includes tips and advice for readers.

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is recognized as one of the leading social media experts. Chris publishes frequently and provides a lot of quality content related to social media.

Collective Thoughts

Collective Thoughts is a group project from a number of experienced bloggers. Posts aren’t extremely frequent, but it’s a good blog to watch if you’re looking for more social media content.

Social Desire

Shana Albert has built a strong reputation in the social media industry over the past few years. Her blog, Social Desire, is where she shares her thoughts and tips on social media (she’s also a contributer at Collective Thoughts).

TwiTip

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger launched at Twitter-focused blog a few months ago. If you’re interested in learning more about Twitter and how you can use it in your daily life, check out TwiTip. Not surprisingly Darren’s new blog already has a strong subscriber base of over 3,000 subscribers.

Web Strategies by Jeremiah

Jeremiah Owyang covers a lot of information related to social media. He has an established audience of over 17,000 blog subscribers and over 19,000 Twitter followers.

Writing:

Depending on what type of internet marketing you’re doing, content development and/or copywriting could play a large role in your success.

Copyblogger

Copyblogger is a great resource for anyone that wants to improve results with better copy. There’s also some blogging content from the team of writers at Copyblogger.

Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett covers a lot of blogging and marketing-related content on his blog, but I decided to classify him here. Chris is an authority blogger who has literally written the book on blogging. However, Chris is on this list because he covers much more than just blogging.

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing content is covered at some of the blogs listed above in other categories, but there are also several excellent blogs that focus primarily on this content. Affiliate marketing blogs aren’t ones that I follow very closely, but I know they’re relevant to many readers so I included those that I’m familiar with.

Affiliate Tip

Affiliate Tip owner Shawn Collins is one of the leading affiliate marketers out there. His blog includes some tips and general affiliate-related news.

Earners Blog

Earner’s blog has over 2,500 subscribers and provides some good, real-world content.

Zac Johnson

Zac Johnson is one of the leading affiliate marketing bloggers with over 4,000 subscribers. He posts content frequently on various topics relevant for affiliate marketers.

Uber Affiliate

Uber Affiliate has almost 5,000 subscribers and publishes new content several times per month.

Web 2.0 Social Bookmark Icons from IconsPedia

Free Icon Set for Bloggers from Templates.com

Cheers: A Free Social Icon Set from Smashing Magazine

Social Bookmark Iconset from Vikiworks

Social Bookmark Iconset #2 from Vikiworks

Social Media Icon Set from Arbenting

Social Web Buttons – Set 1 from WebFruits

Social Web Buttons – Set 2 from WebFruits

Function Icon Set

Web 2.0 Icons from UtomBox

Strategy:

50 Ways to Use Social Media, Listed by Objective – Web-Strategist

5 Steps to Become a Better Social Media Marketer – Daily Blog Tips

How to Set Up a Domino Effect of Traffic – Vandelay Design

How to Go from Nothing to 550,000 Social Media Visitors in One Month – ViperChill

How to Target the Right Social Media Sites – ProBlogger

How to Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself” – SearchRank

Relationship Building – 6 Tips for Working in Social Media – SEM Clubhouse

Top 10 Reasons Why SEOs Fail On Social Media – SEO 2.0

Top 10 Reasons Why Great Content Fails On Social Media – SEO 2.0

6 Social Media “No-Brainers” You Shouldn’t Forget – Cape Cod SEO

Social Media Optimization: Submit It, But Don’t Forget It – Search Engine Land

StumbleUpon:

A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website – Dosh Dosh

How to Write Posts that Set StumbleUpon on Fire – ProBlogger

5 Reasons My StumbleUpon Profile Stands Out – Social Desire

Why StumbleUpon Sends More Traffic Than Digg – ProBlogger

Digg:

How to Level the Playing Field with Digg – Skelliewag

Maximizing the Likelihood of Getting Dugg – SEOmoz

Fark:

Definitive Guide to Fark and Getting Mass Traffic – ViperChill

Linkbait:

Link Bait Ideas – Cornwall SEO

65 Headlines to Jump Start Your Linkbait – Cornwall SEO

6 Sure-Fire Tactics to Re-Ignite Your Linkbait – ViperChill

Analytics:

The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tipes – Search Engine Journal

Content Development:

How to Have a Constant Flow of Ideas – Social Media Trader

How a Good Title and Description Can Make or Break Your Social Media Submission – SEOmoz

Writing Headlines for Regular Readers, Search Engines and Social Media – Copyblogger

How to Write a Social Media Press Release – Copyblogger

The Unexpected Trap of Writing for Social Media – Copyblogger

Professional Services:

What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer – Techipedia

Tools/Resources:

Tools for Engaging in Social Media – Search Engine Land

General Social Media:

A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites – Dosh Dosh

What the Hell Can Social Media Do for Me? – Social Desire

The ABCs of Social Media – Social Desire

How to Commit Social Media Suicide – Social Media Trader

The Limitations of Social Media – Blogtrepreneur

Building Consistent Traffic with Social Media – Vandelay Design

The New Social Media Democracy – NowSourcing

Getting Started:

The Big Juicy Twitter Guide – An in-depth look at Twitter.

Twictionary – A dictionary for Twitter.

TwitDir – Another Twitter directory.

The Twitter Blog – Follow their official blog.

Explore Twitter – Learn more about Twitter.

Interacting with Friends:

FriendFeed – Discover what your friends are sharing.

Twitter Karma – View your friends.

TweetWheel – Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other.

Who Should I Follow? – Twitter Friend Recommendations.

Intwition – What’s being linked to on Twitter?

CrowdStatus – Create a crowd.

My Tweeple – Manage your following and followers.

GroupTweet – Group message broadcasting for Twitter.

Twitter 100 – See your followers at a glance.

Quotably – Follow Twitter conversations.

TwitterLocal – Follow tweets from a certain area.

TwitterVerse – What is Twitter doing lately?

Twemes – Twitter memes.

Tweetmeme – Twitter meme.

TwitterWho – Batch people search.

Protecting Yourself:

The Twitter Blacklist – Identify the spammers.

Twitter Twerp Scan – Find users who are following too many people in attempt to get followers.

Twitter Snooze – Hit the snooze button on your verbose friends.

Organization:

Socialthing – Get your digital life together.

Twittercal – Tweet your Google calendar.

Twitter Digest – Read updates in a more manageable fashion.

Twitku – Read posts on Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.

Twitter Timer – Set an alarm for things you need to remember.

Twitt.icio.us – Send links from Twitter to del.icio.us.

Twitter Where – Subscribe to Twitter feeds around a certain geographical location.

Stats & Tracking:

TweetBurner – Track what happens with the links you share.

Twitt(url)y – Tracks what URLs Twitter users are talking about.

Twitter Charts – View the number of tweets by a user according to time of day and day of the week.

Twitstat – Real time Twitter analytics.

TweetStats – Graphin’ your stats.

TwitterBuzz – What people are linking to.

Twittermeter – Monitor word frequency.

Tweet Volume – Enter words or phrases and see how often they appear on Twitter.

Twitter Vision – A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter.

Twitterholic – Shows popular Twitter feeds.

Search:

Summize – Search Twitter in real time.

Twitter Search – A customized search engine for Twitter.

Maps:

YouTwit – Put Twitter status on Google maps.

TwittEarth – Live Twitts all over the world.

Desktop Clients:

Twhirl – A desktop client for Twitter.

Snitter – Desktop client for Mac and Windows.

Twitterific – Desktop client for Mac.

gTwitter – Desktop client for Linux.

Witty – Desktop client for Vista.

Twitteroo – Desktop client for the PC.

TwitterPod – Desktop client for Mac.

Twitux – Desktop client for Gnome.

Mobile Clients:

Twitterberry – Mobile client for Blackberry.

Email Twitter – Mobile client.

Twoble – Mobile client for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.

Email:

TwitterMail – Tweet via email.

OutTwit – Use Twitter from Outlook.

IM:

TwitterIM – Tweet via IM.

Widgets:

Twitter Opera Widget – Widget for Opera.

Twitter Widget – From Widgetbox.

Twadget – The Twitter Vista sidebar gadget.

Voice:

TwitterFone – Send messages to Twitter with voice.

Development:

Twitter Development Talk – Google group.

Twitter Bots – Google code.

Blogging:

Twitter Feed – Feed your blog to Twitter.

Photos and File Sharing:

TweetPic – Share photos.

Twitxr - Share photos.

Twittershare – Share files.

SnapTweet – Send Flickr photos to Twitter.

Audio & Video:

Twiddeo – Twitter plus video.

TwitterGram – Share audio.

TwitSay – Give your Twitter account a voice.

Other Resources:

Twibler – Automatically post your new eBay listings on Twitter.

Tweet Clouds – Make word clouds from public streams.

BBC News – Get BBC headlines via Twitter.

Articles About Twitter

Twitter 101: Clarifying the Rules for Newbies – SheGeeks

Posting and Replying with Images and Links with Twitter – Etienne Teo

5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence – ProBlogger

13 Odd Ways to Use Twitter – Social Media Trader

Get Into Twitter or Get Outta Public Relations – PR Squared

Twitter Feeds Made Simple – ClickPopMedia

Video: Twitter in Plain English – Common Craft

Twitter: What’s the Point? – Newsvine

Tweeting for Companies 101 – HorsePigCow

How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity – Marketing Vox

Twitter and Business: The Conclusion – Business and Blogging

How We Use Twitter for Journalism – ReadWriteWeb

10 Things Twitter Users Should Not Do – Valley Wag

Twitter Hashtags and Groups – American Pai

8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for Twitter – Mashable

10 Ways Twitter Can Boost Your Social News Profile – ReadWriteWeb

Copyright and Twitter – Blog Herald

My Essential Twitter Tools – Web-Strategist.com

Twitter Can Be Liberated – Here’s How – TechCrunch

Twitter May Not Have to Worry About Uptime Anymore – TechCrunch

RFC: OpenTweets – Why is MicroBlogging Centralized? – Scott Hanselman

Why Decentralizing Twitter is so Important – Scripting.com

Decentralized Twitter’s Time Has Come – BroadbandMechanics.com

Home Tweet Home: Energy-Savvy House Broadcasts on Twitter – Wired.com

If you’re a Twitter user feel free to leave your username or a link to your profile below. Mine is stevensnell.

Articles

Introduction to RSS
What is RSS? RSS Explained
RSS Specifications
RSS 2.0 Specification
History of RSS
35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today
Making Headlines with RSS
The Evolution of RSS
8 Easy Ways to Monetize Your RSS Feed
RSS – Taking it to the People

Creating an RSS Feed – Articles/Tutorials

RSS Tutorial from mnot.net
RSS Tutorial from SiteArticles.com
RSS Utilities: A Tutorial
RSS Tutorial from W3 Schools
RSS Tutorial – Introduction and Overview
Creating RSS Files for Your Website
Creating a Custom RSS Feed with PHP and MySQL
How to Create RSS Feeds with Dreamweaver
How to Create an RSS 2.0 Feed
How to Create an RSS Feed with Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer
How to Create an RSS Feed from any Web Page
Set Up a Simple Syndication Feed Using RSS
Making an RSS Feed
Make RSS Feeds
Create RSS

Software for Creating Feeds

Feed for All
Feed Editor
MyRSSCreator
RSS Content Builder
Feeder

Submit Your Feed to RSS Directories

RSS Submit
RSS Feeds Submit

Stats

FeedBurner
Fedafi WordPress plugin

Toolbars

Feed Scout is an RSS reading toolbar for Internet Explorer
My RSS Toolbar
Diodia
Headline Toolbar (for Firefox)
RSS Feeds Toolbar for IE

Feed Readers

FeedDemon
FeedReader
Bloglines
NewsGator
My Yahoo
Active Web Reader
SurfPack
Awasu
RSS Bandit
NewzCrawler
FeedLounge
FeedShow
Rojo
Blog Bridge
News Monster
PixelNews
GreatNews
Particls
Anothr
Juice
Snarfer
Omea
Shrook
NewsLife
Straw
RSS Owl
Netvibes
Pageflakes
Daily Rotation

Mobile Feed Readers

LiteFeeds
Mobilerss.net
FreeRange
mReader
NewsGator Go
Egress
Quick News

Firefox Extensions

Sage
Thunderbird
RSS Ticker
Wizz
Blog Rovr
InfoRSS
Beatnik
NewsFox
Feed Sidebar

Blogging Platforms

WordPress
Movable Type
Blogger
Expression Engine
Type Pad
Squarespace

Conversion

RSS2HTML
RSSgenr8 (HMTL to RSS)
Magpie RSS (PHP RSS parser)
RSS to JavaScript
RSS News JavaScript Ticker
Feed Sweep (RSS to JavaScript)
Widgetbox
FeedYes (HTML to RSS)
Feed43 (HTML to RSS)
Feed Maker (HTML to RSS)
Apexoft (RSS to speech)
Atom2RSS
NewsAloud (RSS to speech)
RSS2PDF
Google2RSS (converts a Google search to RSS)
Outlook 2 RSS

RSS to Email

FeedBlitz
PopHeadlines
RssFwd
News Gator Email Edition
R-Mail
RSS2Email

Syndication

Feed Roll Pro
Feed Digest
Blog Bomb

RSS Directories

List of RSS directories

Validators

Feed Validator
RSS Validator
Walidator
Redland RSS Validator

RSS Icons, Buttons, and Widgets

Feed Icons
Add This
Create custom icons
Podcast icons
RSS Button Maker
RSS Icon Gallery
Feed Button
Custom Button Maker
Button Gallery

RSS Mixers

RSS Mix
Yahoo Pipes
FeedBlendr
Feedbite
Feed Rinse
Blast Feed
Feedshake
PocketFeed
Syndic8

Advertising/Monetizing

Pheedo
Orange Feed
Feedvertising
FeedBurner

Subscriptions

QuickSub
FeedPass
Solo Sub
AddThis

Pinging Services

Ping-O-Matic
Pingoat
Pinger from Blog Flux

RSS Forums

NewsGator
Webmaster World
Lockergnome
Digital Point
RSS Bandit

Tools

Feed Cycle
URL Fan
Ebay 2 RSS
FeedMagick
Feedverter
Flickr Widget
RSS ZeitGeist
RSS Calendar
Tag Cloud

Share This – Choose which sites you want to target and let your readers vote for you with this plugin. Share This even allws you to change the colors to match your website. Unlike most plugins, it also provide tracking reports.

Sociable – One of the more popular WordPress plugins for social media, Sociable will place buttons to several social bookmarking sites on each of your posts for users to easily submit and vote for you. With sociable you can also choose which buttons you want to include.

Antisocial – Antisocial is simply a different version of Sociable that adds nofollow tags to the links pointing towards the social media sites. The nofollow tags keep the link juice on your pages, which is better for SEO purposes.

Gregarious – Promote your blog posts on Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us and more with Gregarious. There are several different options that you can customize to suit your needs.

Notable – Similar to Sociable, Notable will place buttons on your blog posts to different social media sites.

Add to Any Bookmark Button – This plugin creates a simple bookmark button that allows users to bookmark the page with any bookmark manager they choose.

I Love Social Bookmarking – Looking for a slightly different alternative to some of the others on this list? I Love Social Bookmarking allows users to vote for your blog posts by using a drop down menu to select a social media site at which to vote, which keeps less icons on your blog.

Digg This – Digg has the potential to send more traffic in a short period of time than any other social media site. You can make it easy for your readers to digg your posts by placing the button directly on your pages with this plugin.

SphinnIt Button – Sphinn is a social media site that targets internet marketing and search-related topics, and with this plugin your readers can easily Sphinn your posts.

WP Super Cache – Now that you’ll be getting floods of traffic thanks in part to these plugins, you’ll need to help your server handle the traffic. WP Super Cache reduces the load on your server by delivering pages without accessing the database, essentially serving them up as if they were static pages.

What’s Your Opinion?

Which plugins do you use to optimize your blog for social media?