Blotanical News

Knoxville has finally put Tennessee on the map as we begin to fill in the inland blanks in the US. It's interesting to see the main centres; North-East, West and Southern States become a little congested with gardeners wanting to share their blogs. So when an interior blogger adds their location it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's great to have you on board American Swede.

Canada offers up 2 more blogs: one in Alberta and the other from New Brunswick. England's Chippenham, Wiltshire adds another to the UK and just when you thought we had all the Austin gardeners, up surfaces another. Austin Texas must be the most tech-savvy gardening area in the world as we are now graced by 11 gardeners from this area.

Welcome all.

Posted by Stuart at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's always exciting when you break new ground and this week has been no exception. Starting with Europe, we now have our 'first' blog for Estonia (I had to Google map Estonia as I thought it was a country in Africa - lol!) and also our 'first' blog from Croatia.

Even the US chimed in with a 'first' as Utah now sports its very first gardening blog in this directory. Welcome also to Renton, WA and Oakville, Ontario.

A quick note to some blogs that have registered but haven't been published. The hold up may be for a variety of reasons but the main one that seems common is due to new blogs that either have only one post so far or others that aren't quite fitting into one of the categories yet. For some, they will go on to be published while others may not be accepted at all.

If you feel like your blog hasn't been treated correctly feel free to email me to discuss.

Posted by Stuart at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adding an image to your blog may be just a click or two away but it can also leave you in hot water due tocopyright laws. Even if you provide the correct attribution you may find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

Apart from taking all your photos yourself, which limits what you can and can't discuss on your blog, there are other ways to source some great pics without the enormous fees. In fact, there are still ways to access high-quality images without it costing a brass razoo (I'm assuming that brass razoos are still free).

Mark Frauenfelder (Boing Boing Founder) from Rule the Web put me onto the MorgueFile after reading one of his recent posts. The MorgueFile is an archived photographic gallery containing a large quantity of images free for the taking. Even better, is the fact that you don't even need to ascribe attribution to the photographer as they're completely royalty-free.

openphoto.net is another source, although somewhat limited in the range of images available, and you will also need to check the required attribution via their licensing page.

For me, most of the images that I use on my blogs come from Flickr.com using the photos freely available with a Creative Commons licence. This allows me to use the photographs provided I link back to the original source.

So, the next time you want to adding a stunning illustration to enhance your blog post, search out the free image sources that are widely available and easy to access.

Posted by Stuart at 4:00 PM | Permalink

Not only is Soekershof; the scientific back up our first South African garden blog but also our first ever blog on the continent of Africa. It's always more effort creating a whole new map so I resist it as much as possible. But in this case, I'm stoked to introduce a map for a whole new continent. Welcome aboard.

Also, Hobart which is the southern most capital city in Australia is featuring with it's first garden blog. It's also our first for Tasmania.

Then we have our usual smattering of US blogs bringing the total to 132 (more than half of all our listed garden blogs). It's great to see Barrie from Gardenmob has joined the directory. Gardenmob is a regular read in my feed reader and I love Barrie's descriptions and anecdotes about his roses.

Posted by Stuart at 5:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two hundred sites in a directory is hardly a cause for celebration. However, when it's a directory that's so focussed on a very tight niche - garden blogs - it comes back into perspective.

Garden blogs are a very dynamic social group that is far more creative than many other blog niches. We like to show off pictures of our blooming plants, talk about earthworms and how great their waste management system is, and then discuss issues such as GM foods. How more different can we become?

The benefit of having more than 200 blogs listed in the directory means we can never run out of things to read or new people to meet either. So, if you're feeling a little lonely in this vast gardening blogosphere go and make friends with a new garden blogger. Here's 10 more to befriend;

Posted by Stuart at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine your blog is like the front door to your house. When the door is opened we expect to see a smiling face welcoming us in or at least willing to accommodate our query.

Now imagine that the front door is never opened and instead you talk to a voice through an intercom. From the tonal range you can guess whether the person on the other end is male or female but we're not given any clues as to their age, height, body language or facial features.

It has a similar feeling as talking to the priest in a confessional booth. Impersonal. Not relational.

When you're talking through an intercom your mind is trying hard to assemble a jigsaw picture of who you're talking to. And your mind can make some pretty large assumptions which are more often than not, completely devoid of the true picture.

I'm not sure about you, but I struggle to get past this barrier. If I stumble upon a blog that has no picture of the author I'm less likely to stay and strike up a conversation. I like to see who I'm talking to and being able to see a 'face' gives me some reassurance that a person is behind the content and not some automated process.

Furthermore, a picture on your blog can add a high level of branding. Why? Because in the blogging world - YOU are the brand.

How often in comments do you see a picture of someone and instantly recognise them as the author of [insert bog name here]? And, if you consistently see a picture turn up it will intrigue you to search out who this person is and what they're on about.

Photos of 'real' people is what propels social marketing tools like MyBlogLog because we crave connection with another human being.

On the flipside, if you don't have a photo of yourself on your blog, you're allowing your readers to make their own assumptions which in most cases won't be great. You become an 'intercom blog' that forces people to make their picture of you and often this will come out terribly wrong.

Do you agree? Or, do you think it doesn't matter if blogs have pictures or not? Do you have a picture on your blog and if so, why? If not, why not and do you plan to add one anytime soon?

I'd love to hear to your thoughts...

Posted by Stuart at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)