Use the new “Archives” page at the top of this blog. This page lists everything ever posted at BloggingStartup.com. By the way, the page is created with a wonderful plugin called SRG Clean Archives 4.2 from GeekWithLaptop.com.

Use the wonderful search feature in the upper right corner of the blog. It’s big, pretty, and very functional. Give it a try…you know you want to.

Check out the list of popular articles in the right sidebar. This is where I list the most popular posts as rated by Good Housekeeping.

Use the list of Recent Posts in the right sidebar. This is a list of the last five posts appearing on this blog.

Finally, find what you are looking for by category. The category list in the right sidebar is a great way to find articles by topic area. For example, click Blog Contests to find all the contests that I have reported about.

So there you go, five great ways to find what you are looking for at Blogging Startup. So quit sending me emails asking where to find stuff. I have no idea where you put the T.V. remote!

[Photo Credit:C.P. Storm]

• WordPress has an entire section for creating a blogroll.
• Shoemoney has a blogroll.
• Blogroll is listed in the blogging dictionary (well, this version)
• Blogging Startup has a blogroll.

So, all real bloggers have a blogroll, right?  Wrong.  There is no requirement that a blog have a blogroll.  In fact, many of the top blogs had dumped the concept of a blogroll.

Here are some reasons to include a blogroll:

1. You have a great list of blogs that you want to share with your readers.
2. You want to provide your readers with other resources on the topic of your blog.
3. You want to use your blogroll as a tool for promoting your blog (watch for a future post on this topic).

Here are some reasons to not include a blogroll:

1. You don’t want to offend anyone by excluding their blog.
2. You don’t have a great list of other blogs.
3. You do not have space on your blog.
4. You just don’t feel like having one.

The bottom line is, having a blogroll is a matter of personal preference.  But if you are going to have a blogroll, you want to do it right.  This is the first in a series of short posts on blogrolls.  Be sure to return and read the next post, regarding the “unwritten blogroll rule”.

[PhotoCredit:MissKaren]

Automattic WordPress.com 2.5 Essential Training – This video training is the newest release at Lynda.com. You’ve not heard of Lynda.com? Well, that’s another great story…but for now you just need to know that Maria Langer has created a 4.5 hour video training for Lynda.com that covers nearly everything you can do with WordPress 2.5. Some of the introductory segments are free to view, but you should consider the one month, $25 membership. You can watch as many videos as you’d like for 30 days! (No, Lynda doesn’t pay me to say this…but I wouldn’t mind if she comped the one-year membership I purchased.)

Dateless Sniper 2.0 WordPress Theme – With a name like that, it’s got to be….well, I don’t know, but I love this theme! This Courtney Tuttle design is clean, sharp and Adsense ready. Court has even put together a video tutorial for those using this theme. If you’re looking for a high-quality, FREE WordPress theme, be sure to give Dateless Sniper 2.0 a look. I love that name!

Lost At E Minor – This blog is listed here simply because it is the most amazing WordPress site I have seen is quite some time. The design is by Andrew “Whitey” Whitehead, an Australian chap with amazing talent. This pop culture blog is a mixed media extravaganza. Can a blog be eye candy? Visit Lost At E Minor and find out.

WordPress SEO – Or, according to the subtitle, the definitive guide to high rankings or your blog. This Yoast post by Joost is the most, pardon my boast. (Hey, I’m having fun…play along.) Just a few days old, the WordPress SEO is a digestible article on the tricks and tactics for optimizing your site for search engine ranking. I strongly recommend that you read this post and take action… immediately! Your blog deserves Google page one ranking and this is the way to get there.

Protecting Your Content on WordPress.com – I get so frustrated with finding content I wrote used (usually without credit) on other websites. It’s not that what I write would interest a pimply faced Internet scavenger, but there are plenty of lazy, unscrupulous site owners who simply “scrape” blog content and use it as their own. Join me in fighting this battle against lazy S.O.B.s. Read Jonathan Bailey’s post at Lorelle on WordPress about how to find and battle Internet plagiarism.

Oh well, that’s where our spam filters come in. So the question today is, just how good is your spam filter? When I started this blog, I decided to do a little recordkeeping to see just how good my spam filter is. I have always used the Akismet spam filter that comes with my WordPress installation. Of course, I keep it up to date with each new update.

So, here’s the comment stats since my blog started in mid-January 2008.

Total Comments: 598
Total Spam Comments: 410
Percent of Comments that are Spam: 68.6%

Spam Comments Missed by Akismet: 1
Comments Incorrectly Filtered as Spam: 4
Percent of Spam Filtering Errors: <1.0%

Percent of Spam Peddling Porn or Viagra: 78.9%
Percent of My Budget for Buying Porn or Viagra: 0.0%
Percent of My Day Spent on Spam Problems: 0.0%

Now if only the Sacramento Kings stats looked as good. Quite honestly, I can’t imagine how the Akismet filter could do any better. Actually, I can’t imagine how it does even that well. The Akismet filter is absolutely amazing. By the way, the above photo reveals the secret behind the Akismet spam filter.

So, what spam filter do you use on your blog? Do you feel the performance is on par with the Askimet filter?

[PhotoCredit:Lloydyidau]

• Why you should use WordPress,
• How to get your own domain name,
• How to install and use WordPress plugins, and
• What RSS is and why you need it.

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick are brains and talent behind the BecomeaBlogger website. Yaro is a very successful, full time blogger and Internet entrepreneur. His blog, Entrepreneur’s Journey, is one of my regular reads. Gideon produces the popular video blog, Internet Marketing Wizards.

I was just over at BlogOhBlog.com and checking out the new design on their blog. The theme called BOB on Fire looks hot. Some tweaking is still taking place, but I think it is going to be a winner.

Anyway, while checking out the new design for BOB, I tried out the Plugoo IM feature on the page and told Jai Nischal Verma how much I like the new look. He let me in on the news that he’s working on a new theme called Blue Lily. No other details, but if it’s anything like their other releases, it will be great.

Well, that’s the extent of my big scoop. But if you’ve got the time, drop in on BlogOhBlog and see the new look. Also check out the Technicon theme while you’re there (Technicon Demo). Oh, these themes are free!