Credit: jaylopez

Almost all bloggers that I know have had trouble coming up with new ideas for their blogs from time to time. Newbies have to deal with this issue more than experienced bloggers. These days, there are just so many tools that one can use to come up with new blogging ideas. You just have to learn how to use them. Twitter is one of those tools. It’s a powerful social network that connects you to the world and gives you access to millions of people. Many bloggers use Twitter to drive traffic to their blogs and push products. There is nothing wrong with that. Don’t forget that there is a lot of value in listening to what others have to say on Twitter. It’s not hard to miss things when you are the one who’s doing all the talking.

If you are ready to listen to what others have to say on Twitter, here are 5 ways you can use this network to come up with new ideas for your blog:

• Track top stories with Topsy: lots of Twitter fans use Tweetmeme to find the top stories in Twitterville. I personally prefer Topsy. It’s a powerful Twitter search engine that lets you find out what’s trending and what people are talking about online. It even shows you who the influential players are. Great tool to gather information for your next blog post.
• Ask Questions: if you are too impatient, you can just ask questions on Twitter. There are tools that let you share polls and questions with the Twitter community. Just make sure your question is to the point and something worth answering (that goes without saying).
• Track keywords: tools such as tweetbeep to keep track of your favorite keywords on Twitter just like you would on Google using Google Alerts. You’d be surprised how many ideas you can get by looking at your Twitter alerts.
• Pay Attention to Trends: this is really a no-brainer. Keeping track of what’s trending on Twitter is a must for every blogger. It’s even more helpful if you are struggling to come up with an idea for your next post. twendz is one of many tools you can use for this purpose.
• Integrate Twitter into your blog: I have seen this done many time by top bloggers. Here is how it works. You ask a question, gather feedback, organize them all, and turn them into a post. Don’t forget to give credit to those who have contributed and add your unique take to it as well. We have all seen those “top blog posts for this week” type of stories. There is no reason you can’t do it for Twitter.

What are your suggestions? How do you use Twitter to come up with new blogging ideas?

Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking website, chances are you have the option to add your own avatar to your profile. Many don’t even take the time to change the default picture on their profile, but those who have come to appreciate what the social media is all about never forget to do that. One way to express yourself and your fun side is by creating an online likeness for yourself. I am not a big fan of cartoonish avatars myself, but there are plenty of marketers who have used their avatars to brand themselves. Some prefer using their real pictures. I am not going to argue which choice is better. However, if you plan on creating your own avatar and have no idea where to start, here are 6 services you should try:

urfooz: a cool service that lets you create your own online portable profile. You have a lot of options to choose from when designing your avatars. Once you are done, you can post your avatar to pop social media sites.

Face Your Manga: another avatar creation tool that lets you use your creativity to develop highly sophisticated avatars. You can then grab and share it on top social networking sites out there.

Avatar Creator: one killer iPhone app that lets you create your own avatar on your iPhone fast. It actually a decent number of customization options, which is pretty neat considering this is a mobile application.

DoppelMe: it’s not as sophisticated or let’s say colorful as the above services. But you’d be surprised what you can develop with this service. Great for creating simple avatars.

WeeWorld: a virtual community that mainly targets teenagers. Still, you can create your own avatar and use it on top chat services. There are plenty of customization features available through this service as well.

Snapatar: OK. Maybe you find the above services to be silly. You can always snap your picture and send it to Twitter with Snapatar. It certainly makes things a whole lot easier.

What service have you used to create your own avatar?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Feedburner has just got a whole lot of fun again. Google has introduced a new feature that allows you to feed your blog posts to Twitter automatically without having to rely on services such as TwitterFeed or Hootsuite. So every-time you make a new post and update your blog, Google will automatically post your blog post to your Twitter.

Here is how it works. First, you have to log on to Feedburner and choose your “Publicize” tab. Once there, you should be able to see the new “Socialize” feature on the page:

That’s really all you have to do. Here you can define how many posts you want this service to post to your Twitter account. You can also define prefix and suffix phrases for your posts. And don’t forget about tags either. The service is not as flexible as some of the other ones on the market, but it’s certainly easy to use. Feedburner just got a whole lot more fun.