This means I regularly receive emails on the following things from people I don’t know:

- Request to write a guest post

- Request for a link exchange

- Request to write about a particular product

- Request to mention an article in my next blog post

- Request to review a product

Usually – not always – these are poorly directed requests. In many cases the person contacting me has clearly never read either of my blogs or is so horribly misguided it pains me.

So, this week I was excited to read two great posts about the very topic of approaching bloggers. If you’re in PR or in the habit of cold-emailing bloggers I’m certain you’ll learn a great deal from reading them. And if you practice the advice, you’ll also be a lot more effective when you contact folks like me.

First up is a post by Jay Dolan, author of my most favourite blog The Anti-Social Media.

Jay doesn’t mince words in 6 ways to avoid blogger outreach failure.

His six points are:

1. Get off Yahoo and Gmail
2. Don’t ask to write a guest post
3. Stop trying to get me to promote your content
4. Don’t waste my time
5. Don’t assume
6. Say my name

Please read his post to fully understand Jay’s woes.

Second up is Monica Hamburg writing over at One Degree.

In Avoiding the Supermarket Approach When Pitching Bloggers, Monica provides some excellent, practical advice for anyone approaching a blogger.

If everyone read and followed the advice in these posts, the blog world would be a happier place.

Thanks so much to Jay and Monica for putting into words what many of us feel.

PS – on a related note, check out this post from cc. chapman giving advice to Ragu who, he believed, had failed in the way they approached bloggers for a recent campaign.

Brankica put together a free ebook featuring 99 ways to improve your blog.

Whether you’re a blogging superstar already or just starting out, I’m certain you’ll find her hints and tips useful.

Is your blog published on Kindle? Brankica will tell you why it should be. Think you have the perfect ABOUT page? Brankica’s advice will help make it even better.

She’s created a short version which you get from the first download button. But if you agree to subscribe to her mailing list you’ll get a fuller version of the ebook. I totally signed up and encourage you to do the same. This is one smart blogging chick (and she likes dogs).

Check out her free download of ’99 Tasks for Blog Improvement.’

Thanks to Kristi Hines for bringing my attention to Blog Like a Star. Kristi also writes a fabulous blog with zillions of blogging resources, hints and tips.

I talk about making your Twitter, Facebook page or blog a go-to place for useful information.

Smarty pants blogger Martyn Chamberlin, writing a guest post on ProBlogger, has perfectly summed up what I’m getting at.

In Teach or your blog will die, Martyn tells us: ‘Nobody cares who you are, but they love to surf the Internet and learn things. If you’re giving away useful content that creates value for others, they’ll start showing interest in you.’

Head over to ProBlogger to read the full article. And then subscribe to Martyn’s blog Two Hour Blogger to keep reading more of Martyn’s great advice.

I’ve been reading The Anti-Social Media blog for little while now but today I reached a milestone.

I am officially declaring it as my most favourite blog. Ever.

This is the post responsible: The 4 Stages When You Have Nothing To Blog About.

Sometimes I get a bit bored reading social media marketing advice from so-called ‘experts.’ Jay Dolan, the writer behind the blog, tells it like it is.

You should watch this video below featuring Jay. It’s pretty obvious why his blog is so funny. He’s one smart cookie.

It’s my WordPress theme roundup.

Here are 12 delicious WordPress themes I’ve found this past month.

The best part is that they’re all free.

Basico

Demo | Download

Berlin

Demo | Download

Big Square

Demo | Download

Black Magazine

Demo | Download

Bliss

Demo | Download

David Airey’s theme

Demo | Download

Fapowy

Demo | Download

JournalCrunch

Demo | Download

Puremag

Demo | Download

Sight

Demo | Download

Demo | Download

Demo | Download

Well, dear reader, this is one of those posts.

Three important things happened this week which I want to tell you about. Each thing is something I’m very proud of and, in two cases, incredibly honoured.

We’ll tackle this chronologically.

Monday marked my first session with a personal trainer.

And now I can’t walk.

I’m told things will get better. I beg to differ.

I’ve never been to the gym. I’m not someone who really thinks too much about my six pack. I enjoy life. I drink. I smoke.

I cycle to work during the summer months. Faithfully. But during winter I tend to hibernate. I’m 36 which is the unhealthy side of 35 for drinkers and smokers. And I might have a little extra padding. More than I really need.

My job as website manager and the way I spend my leisure time means I’m sitting in front of a computer. All the time.

It was time to get a personal trainer.

Circumstance led me to Lindsay Hamel who happens to be someone I’ve known (of) for years. And before you think that my blogging (or my dog’s blogging) has turned me into a millionare, think again.

In Winnipeg the cost of a personal trainer is not out of reach (like some larger cities, and certainly like London, England where I’m from). With a little less drinking and smoking, I should be able to cover it.

Just before heading off to my session with Lindsay yesterday afternoon I spied an incredible blog post in my inbox: Women in blogging: 125 fearless female bloggers by Kristi Hines who runs Kikolani.com.

Please know that I am just a Brit gal fumbling at blogging.

Imagine my total shock when I noticed myself on the list. Yes! Me. What was I doing there? It must be a mistake. Honestly, I felt sick and my heart was beating fast (further confirmation that my impending visit to Lindsay was a decision well made).

You must be familiar with these types of list – sometimes they appear in the weekend sections of the newspaper showing the top employers or entreprenuers in your area. In the blogosphere they’re also usually a fairly good indication of who you should be paying attention to.

I am honoured to be listed.

And the icing on the cake was, today, finding out that my dog’s blog Hi, I’m Sadie Shih Tzu has been shortlisted for a Canadian Weblog Award in the ‘Best Design’ category. This means that she is in the top five blogs being considered for that accolade.

She was originally nominated in three categories. Independent jurors select the top five in 37 different categories.

Admittedly the other four blogs in the ‘Best Design’ category kick arse so I don’t know if Sadie’s will win but to be shortlisted is amazing.

I’m too late for Thanksgiving but I’d like to give a little tip of the hat to all that stuff: thank you for supporting me on Facebook while I moan about aching muscles; thank you to you dear reader for visiting this blog; thank you for inspiring me to produce content and get creative with Sadie’s blog. I have much to be thankful for (but Lindsay, I am NOT thankful for lunges).

All the themes shown below are free – though several of them do have pro versions with additional features.

I’m particularly in love with Platform by Pagelines which has a gizillion theme options even on the free version.

Codium Extend

Demo | Download

SilverBlog

Demo | Download

Plain Fields

Demo | Download

Platform

Demo | Download

Portfolio Press

Demo | Download

Prototype

Demo | Download

Suburbia

Demo | Download

thememagic

Demo | Download

Verbage

Demo | Download

ZenBlog

Demo | Download

A few of the themes listed below aren’t super new but are themes I like and want to share with you.

Vanadiumitic

Demo | Download

CP Minimal

Demo | Download

Fresh & Clean

Demo | Download

Portraiture

Demo | Download

eDeco

Demo | Download

Diary 1.0

Demo | Download

Blogum

Demo | Download

Silver Magazine

Demo | Download

Skeptical

Demo | Download

Titaniumifize

Demo | Download

Kozuka

Demo | Download

I’m obsessed with finding new and beautiful WordPress themes. I usually check at least once a day to see what’s new in the world of themes.

There are a lot of very badly designed free themes. When I find a great theme, I usually download it and check it out on one of my test sites.

For these reasons I’ve decided to write a regular theme roundup post showing the latest themes I’ve found. I can’t be the only one obsessed with this stuff so hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it too – and maybe a new theme for your blog.

There are lots of premium themes (paid) that I fall in love with but I’m going to focus on the free stuff.

Typominima

Demo | Download

Artarius

Demo | Download

Simplex Magazine

Demo | Download

Speaky

Demo | Download

UltraLight

Demo | Download

Sodiumific

Demo | Download

Bonus theme – Château

This beautiful theme isn’t entirely free but at 99 cents it’s practically free.

Demo & download

This post comes from fellow Winnipeg blogger Kyla Roma.

Oddly, we’ve never met in person but continue to connect online.

I adore Kyla’s blog and admire her committment to great content and connecting with her readers.

For this guest post, I asked Kyla to share some of her blogging secrets with us. Here’s what she had to say.

Starting a blog is easy enough, but after the honeymoon period of finding a look and a voice that’s just right, maintaining a blog and drawing in new readers can be a daunting task.

I’ve been blogging about my life, photography, and DIY for two years and my blog has always been a project that I love, but keeping it fresh and new while keeping it from taking over my time has been a challenge.

Liz kindly asked if I could share some of the things that have worked for me, and these are a few of my favourite strategies:

1. Put high value, unique content first

No one is an island and being in touch with your community is vital, but the only thing that will get people coming back to your blog is excellent content.

Stay on top of trends and news in your community and find a way to speak to them that demonstrates your strengths. From an ability to build a strong narrative to unique presentation, finding a strength and an angle that gives you a unique position inside your community is a great way to get noticed and have people looking forward to what you bring to the table.

2. All blogs are personal

Personal blogging has a funny reputation but with huge companies changing gears from having One Consistent Impersonal Corporate Message to having a number of distinct, trusted individual voices, all of our social media is at least a little personal.

This can be scary territory for small business owners, especially because so many seem to equate a blog with an avenue to vent about bad days, but pulling back the curtain (even just slightly) gives clients someone to connect to, and that feeling of being an “insider” can go a long way toward building an invested client base.

Even just showing a collection of your favourite things, or linking to your favourite inspiration sources gives people a sense of who you are – no dredging up family drama or venting about bad days required.

3. Choose your weapons

I get hit with inspiration at odd times, and I found out quickly that feeling like I have to blog every day is more of a stress than anything.

Now that I blog five to six times a week, I’ve started exploring more tools that let me take back my time and ramp down my stress.

Some of my favourites for WordPress are Twitter Tools, which tweets your posts when they publish, Dashboard: Scheduled Posts, so I can see my next set of scheduled posts at a glance when I log in, and Editorial Calendar for a monthly at a glance view of my posts and the ability to drag and drop them in any order I like.

My favourite offline tool is simple and probably my most useful: a notebook that I keep with me for when I have ideas for posts.

4. Jump into the conversation

If something is going on in your community that you have opinions on, speak to it. If you’re on Twitter but aren’t starting conversations, start talking to people!

No one is involved in blogging or social media because they’re looking to build walls- everyone wants to feel noticed, valued, and part of something. Simple acts of inclusion can go a very long way.

5. Try making a plan

This one isn’t right for everyone, but I love having a rough idea of what my blog content will look like in a week or two.

I find it takes a lot of (self inflicted) pressure off me, and it helps make sure everything flows nicely from one post to another. A plan could be as simple as starting a series that you post on once a month, but planning in advance can help you to pull together beautiful, insightful posts that you might not feel up to if you only blog after a long day of work.

Kyla Roma is a 20something lady living in the Canadian Prairies under the biggest sky she’s ever seen.

She’s a life-long vegetarian, blogger, black tea aficionado, photography nut, knitter, puppy mama and wife. Her beautiful blog is a collection of stories from her life and things that make her swoon.