This is another repost wherein I think would benefit me and my readers in the future, if I will make it a habit to read it. Once again Janette Toral was invited to speak about blogging and here are some important points that she mentioned. These are simple things but trying to analyze it would make you realize your purpose if you want to step into more serious blogging. The following tips are recommended for the newbies who does not know how and where to start blogging.

Blogging for power and influence requires a bigger perspective and a definite plan for those pursuing this path. It is more than just technical knowledge as it requires

• Pick a niche
  Identify where you want to be known for. Is this something that you will be interested in doing for the next ten years?
• Share what you know
  Give and share what you know. In the process, you will earn goodwill and trust that can result to opportunities.
• Be different and stand out
  Don’t be a copycat. Know right from the start what will make you different from the rest.
• Forge alliances
  Partner with those where you can add value to and benefit from as well.
• Be featured
  If you’ll do the above well, there is a big possibility that people will start talking about you. Don’t miss out on opportunities that gives you valuable exposure. This includes being interviewed and speak in events.
• Appear in search engine results
  Make sure that you own first page of search engine results or information that gets posted about you.

from : Blogging for Power and Influence – Blogging from Home by Janette Toral

I am a great fan of Janette Toral. Here in the Philippines she is considered as the Internet Guru. She is an organizer og blogging summit and social media conferences which helps us new bloggers to maximize and improve our craft. One day I was able to catch her latest buzz and I just can’t resist sharing it here. A repost of what she said. It will also serve as a reviewer, I will read this from time to time.

One thing that made Facebook very popular is its developer program. This allowed users like you and me who are creative in developing our very own application and share it in the social network for users to try out.

However, since late last year, there were so much abuses committed against this program. This includes:

• Applications that creates a photo and tag friends, appearing on notifications and not on your Facebook wall. (SIMs, Who’s Viewing Your Album?, Who’s Viewing Your Profile?)
• Applications that imitates Facebook’s “like” feature. (calling itself “like” and “likes”)

What is most common in these spam programs is that they are created in several variants using the same engine or re-uploaded several time using different user profiles. Some are also classified as a virus already.

To counter this, Facebook has now stopped applications from sending us notices. This is an issue especially for users who have authorized specific applications to update them such as NetworkedBlogs. I think what Facebook should prevent from sending spam notifications are those that were not authorized in the first place.

What is the worst thing that can happen to Facebook with these applications?

• People will get fed up with all the spam and leave.
• Facebook will face a huge attack that it can’t protect itself from – sooner or later.

What can Facebook do?

• Perhaps it is about time for Facebook to have a fee entry for its developer program, rather than be a free for all. This way, any abuser can be caught, properly identified, and be made accountable for their actions. They can implement a similar approach to developers selling apps in an iTunes store.
• Moderating application is another option but that may be too many to manage. However, I believe the above, the entry fee, will make abusers think twice if they will join.

We always say that social networking in 2010 will be bigger than ever. If it is all about Facebook, then all I can think about is that the 1st quarter is all about users defending itself from various form of spam attacking the network.