The other day I was setting up a Wordpress sandbox to do some theme testing and I ran into a small snag. I wanted to populate the blog with data from smmguru.com and the Wordpress export feature is a bit flawed. For many reasons (mainly security) I did not want the sandbox blog running off the same database so a backup/import was the way to go. Unless you can upload a 6mb export to your site (highly unlikely) then you cant import any data.

The first route I took was manually trying to split the file but I quickly realized it would take forever with that many lines of code. I took my problem to Google and found a nice little gem called “Shoes.” Its a WXR file splitter written in ruby by  mvManila. The program is very easy to use and it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux and there’s also a command line version for the nerds. You can get the latest version here (just pick the latest version number for whichever platform you are running.) The program will then install itself and your ready to roll.

Select the local copy of your WXR file, then pick how small you would like each chunk to be. You can even append a name that will automatically be ordered in number. For example entering “backup-part-” will create WXR files labeled “backup-part-1″, “backup-part-2″, etc. Then all you have to do is import all the files through WordPress and your good to go.

Now that you know how to make a Twitter bot you may be looking to add some more functionality to it. One problem you may run into after some time is that you keep recycling or re-sending the same messages to Twitter. For example, you have 100 facts about your self and you don’t want any of them to appear twice but you want everything to be automated. How do you do this? Easy, just add a status field to your `tweets` table.

Step 1 – Add the field.
To add the field you can use the simple graphical interface in phpMyAdmin or use the SQL tab (or alternative) to run this code:

ALTER TABLE `tweets` ADD `status` VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL;

What this will do is create a new field in your tweets table with 10 characters of space for that messages status. We will be setting them all to “ready”, and later changing our PHP code to update them as we go along.

Step 2 – Set all tweets to ready.
After you have the new field added to your database you will need to set all of the tweets you want to use to ‘ready’ status. In this example, only tweets with the status set to ‘ready’ can be randomly selected.

While inside of phpMyAdmin (SQL tab) or what ever tool you use, go to the page that allows you to run MySQL commands on your tables and enter this code:

UPDATE `tweets` SET `status` = ‘ready’

Alternatively you can pick which ones you want to use if you already have some tweets that you wish not to recycle. This SQL command will update every tweet/message you have in your database so use it wisely.

Step 3 – Modify PHP to update tweet status in database.
Our third an final step is to modify the php script so it will change the status of every used tweet. To do this, we will make a few simple changes to our original code.

First off, we have to change the MySQL query so it will only pull random messages with “ready” status:

For our second change, we will need to get the ID number of the tweet from the database and pass it to the sendTweet() function we will modify in a moment:

Then we modify our sendTweet() function to handle the tweet’s ID, and then change its status if the message is successfully sent to Twitter:

Now it’s all ready to role. Now every time a message is pulled from the database and sent to Twitter (successfully) it will have it’s status changed to “used” taking it out of the possible messages to send. Just upload your new php file, re-activate your CRON job and have some fun.

There are quite a few uses I could think of for an automated Twitter bot that posts new tweets for you throughout the day. While this sounds like it would be a hard task it’s actually quite easy and a great project for anyone who wants to learn how to use the Twitter API within PHP. Lets get started.

Step 1 – Create your database.

When creating your database there are a number of things you may want to think of ahead of time. For the sake of making things easy I chose to tone down the code I use and show you how it works. We will create a simple table to store all of the random tweets in.

Run that SQL and you should have a new “tweets” table in your chosen database. Notice how we limited the `tweet` field to 140 characters as well so we don’t have tweets that are too long to appear on Twitter.

Step 2 – Create the PHP to send the tweet.

The next step is to create a php script that will randomly select one of your tweets, and then send it to your Twitter account via Twitter’s API. While this sounds complicated, its very easy to do.

Not to bad right? Our custom sendTweet() function pretty much takes care of all the dirty work in sending the message to Twitter. Just make sure you edit the code with your password and username for Twitter, and the MySQL login. Once you have your database populated you are all good to go and test the script to see if it works. Just upload it, run it, and you should see either “fail” or “success” on your screen.

Step 3 – Automate with CRON.

After going to Twitter and checking your account to confirm everything is copacetic, it’s time to let your monster loose. Depending on what host you use, CRON access may or may not be available to you. Luckily for me I am hosted with MediaTemple so this is not a problem.

• Script Location - When using CRON you normally want to upload the file being run into a folder that nobody has access to from the web (root). After you have it in this location, just plug it into CRON with ‘php’ in front of it. Example: php /home/user/root/TwitterBot.php
• Set The Time - I don’t think I have ever used a control panel that required you to manually enter the time format… I’m pretty sure most people use cPanel which also has drop downs to select when you would like the script to run. I like to run my Twitter bot every 25 minuets or so to keep my Twitter account fresh.

That’s it! Not to hard right… If you have any in-depth questions on the code or need help, feel free to leave a comment. Also leave one if you have usage ideas, new features that could make the script better. As you can now see, this is a valuable tool to have in your chest.

UPDATE 5/8/2009

I have released a full blown version of the script packed with features and a complete backend GUI. This has proven to be a great Twitter marketing too! Unlike all the others, I support mine and its not a billion dollars. Check out the site for all the details.

Get Twitterbotscript now!

Listed below is a huge collection of Twitter tools, along with information and links to articles and reviews on each. If you have any to add, leave a comment as I will be updating this post as I go on. (Shit, AJAX is the bomb.) This should become your number one Twitter resource starting now mmmmkay.

Web Applications                  
1. Twitt(url)y – A service for tracking popular URls that are being shared across the Twitter network. Useful for identifying hot trends and topics within social networks.
   1. Twitturly: Tracking Popular URLs On Twitter [The Startup Review]
   2. Twitturly Cracks The TwitterMeme Nut
   3. CrunchBase – twitt(url)y company profile
2. FollowBack – Gives you a color-coded view of people who are following you, and if you should follow them back.
3. Group Tweet – Anyone who wants to broadcast and share private tweets to a specific group of people can do so for free with Group Tweet. Think of it as Yammer but within Twitter.
   1. Privacy Disaster At Twitter: Direct Messages Exposed (Update: GroupTweet Is Likely Culprit)
   2. GroupTweet to blame for Twitter security ‘compromise’
   3. GroupTweet Enhances Twitter
   4. CrunchBase – GroupTweet Company Profile
4. Tweetmeme – Tracks hot topics on Twitter bases on the links people are sharing. 
   1. CrunchBase – Tweetmeme Company Profile
   2. TweetMeme Returns Following Months-Long Forced Outage
   3. Meet Tweetmeme, The Sweeter Way to Track Twitter
5. TwitLinks – Aggregates links from the worlds top tech Twitter users.
   1. TwitLinks: The Techmeme Killer of Twitter? – ReadWrtieWeb
   2. TwitLinks Company Profile – CrunchBase
   3. TwitLinks: Not Useful, Not A TechMeme Killer – TechCrunch
6. Favrd – Offers channels of the most favorited tweets on Twitter with options to search and identify topics by keyword.
   1. FAVRD: Entertainment for the Twitter Attention Span
   2. Fail Whale for the Favrd
7. TweetLater – Schedule tweets for a particular time or day and also allows you to auto-follow and one who follows your account. They even offer a auto-welcome feature that sends a welcome message to your followers.
   1. TweetLater.com – Tweet into the Future
8. Twist – An aggregation like service that looks at trend comparisons and volume between keywords and tags.
9. Twubble – Introduces and recommends new people you may want to follow based off your friend graph.
10. WhoShouldIFollow – Pretty much like Twubble.
11. Twellow – A very useful tool for finding people who matter in your business, industry, or niche.
12. TwitDir – A very effective people search tool for Twitter.
    1. 1 million Twitter users according to Twitdir
    2. A showdown of Twitter user directories – TwitDir vs. Twitterholic
    3. Tracking Your Twitter Growth With Twitterholic, TwitDir, Tweeterboard & Others
13. Twerp Scan – Keeps an eye on the friend / follower ratio of your friends and their friends.
14. Tweet Pro – A paid service for creating a solid niche based network. Great for use in business/branding.
15. Tweet Scan – A search engine for Twitter with advanced topic and trend/keyword tracking features.
16. twInfluence – Measure Twitter influencers based on reach, velocity, social capital, and more. 
17. TwitterGrader – Measures the relative power and authority of a Twitter user by calculating the number of followers, the power of the network of followers, the pace of updates and the completeness of a user’s profile.
18. TwittAd – Micro ad network that connects advertisers to Twitter users to create opportunities for paid product placement and website promotion directly on a Twitter user’s profile.
19. Twitterise – Advertise on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers.
20. WhatsYourTweetWorth – Analyzes your account and network to recommend what your tweets could be worth on Twittad.
21. Twitterific – Lets you read and publish tweets from the desktop, iPhone and iPod Touch.
22. TwitterWhere – Provides the ability to update Twitter with your current location.
23. TwitterFeed - connects your blog to Twitter and automatically feeds posts into the timeline with each new update.
24. Tweetbeep – Allows you to monitor conversations that mention you, your brand, related or competitive products, as well as links to your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL, such as tinyurl.com.
25. Ping.fm – A central distribution service for sending updates to multiple social networks, including Twitter, with one click. 
26. Hellotxt – Provides the ability to instantly update status as well as view the status of your contacts across multiple networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, hi5, Plaxo, Pownce, Plurk, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, BrightKites, etc.) – all from one dashboard.
27. Matt - (Multiple Account Twitter Tweeting) provides a platform for broadcasting one update to multiple accounts.
28. FeedTweeter – Connects social services that offer RSS feeds to you Twitter account.
29. TweetWheel – Visually presents your social graph, who’s following you and who you are in turn following.
30. Twiffied – Shows the headlines of the Websites your Twitter friends have listed in their profiles to see what they’re linking to or blogging about.
31. BrightKite – A location-based social network that connects directly to Twitter.
32. TwitterLocal – The ideal service for quickly finding active voices within a specific city, state, postal code as well as the vicinity, ranging from 1 mile to 20.
33. SnapTweet -  Links your flickr account to share updates seamlessly to Twitter.
34. DoesFollow – Lets you know if one person is following another. That’s it.
35. TwitPic – Provides a bridge from your camera phone to Twitter. Pictures can either post to the Twitter public timeline from phone via email or through the site.
36. Tweet2Tweet – Provides you with the ability to view a history @replies between two Twitter users.
37. Qwitter – Will send an email to you when someone unfollows you and will link the action to the most recent tweet that you posted.
38. FollowCost – Estimates the potential attention (or annoyance) cost of following a particular individual or account.
39. TweetPad – Provides a visual representation of Twitter feeds and statistics with dynamic typography.
40. Twitzu – An event invitation management service for Twitter. You can create an event, broadcast it to followings and manage RSVPs.
41. xefer – Reviews your Twitter account and presents a rich visual analysis of your tweet volume, concentration as well as their resonance (measured by replies) by day, time, week and hour.
42. LiveTwitting – A streamlined solution for livetweeting (covering) conferences.
43. TwitterKeys – Enhances Twitter conversations by replacing words with UTF8 compatible images.
44. Twalala – Adds a mute button to Twitter allowing you to focus your stream as necessary without completely unfollowing someone.

Twitter Clients

45. Twhirl – A social desktop dashboard that centrally manages activity, messaging, and updating for Twitter, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, and Seesmic.
46. TweetDeck - An Adobe Air desktop app that enables uers to split their main Twitter feed into topic or group specific columns.
47. Google Twitter Gadget - Twitter gadget from Google thats pretty much an add-on for Google Desktop.
48. Twitteroo - Has some nice features including URL shortening, sound notification and many other features which help you speed up your tweeting.
49. Spaz – An extremely customizable desktop Twitter client which is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.
50. Witty – A good looking Twitter client which works with Windows Vista and XP.
51. TwitBin - Available to Mac, Windows and Linux owners, TwitBin is a plugin for Firefox 2.0+.
52. Tweetr - Available on Mac and Windows, Tweetr is a great looking Twitter Client. There are alternatives with more features however it’s still worth checking out.
53. Snitter – One of the best looking desktop Twitter clients available.
54. Twitter Opera Widget – A Twitter widget for Opera with basic features.
55. Twibble - The Twibble desktop client is available on Mac and Windows. It allows you to add multiple profiles and even lets you see where you’re Twitter friends are via google Maps.
56. Pwytter - Available on Windows, Mac and Linux, Pwytter has been translated into a whopping 14 languages.

Mobile Twitter Tools

57. Twitterfon – A fast, simple Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is focused on 80% of your tasks in Twitter such as viewing friends/replies/messages in the timeline and also sending/replying tweets.
58. Twinkle – A location-aware network for the iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you discover, connect, and send messages to the public timeline and also to people nearby.
59. Twittlelator – A Twitter client for the iPhone. You can manage multiple user accounts, update your accounts, share pictures, a map of your current location, connect with other Tweeps, read tweets from your contacts, and direct message (DM), and reply all from one app.
60. Twitterberry – A full-featured Twitter client to read and post updates from BlackBerry phones.

We all know Digg has changed so why not look to Mixx for a new form of social news. Especially for those of you who have been exiled from planet Digg. Luckily, Mixx is panning out to be a very nice alternative with more diverse content on your customized front page. Here’s 20 resources to get you into the Mixx.

1. Mixxing In, and Why Early Adoption is Important: A Review of the Newest Social News Network - Learn why you should get on Mixx now, instead of waiting.
2. Most Popular Diggers Leave Digg for Mixx – Why Diggers are leaving their island.
3. Add Mixx to the Wordpress Sociable 2.0 Plugin – How to add Mixx support to your Wordpress Sociable plugin quickly.
4. Thrown In The Mixx – Why Tweed Couch is a dedicated user of Mixx.
5. 10 Things I Like Most About Mixx – 10 things to dig about Mixx.
6. Top Digg Contributor’s are Frustrated: Is Mixx the Answer? – More Digg/Mixx commentary.
7. Is Mixx Actually Becoming a Viable? – Could Mixx become a viable investment.
8. Mixxing Your Blend of the Web – Why Mixx is more inviting than Digg.
9. A Digg Clone That Might Actually Make It – Why Mixx can go long term.
10. Mixx Locations – An article on Mixx’s location features.
11. Digg users flock to Mixx – Why unfair rankings have many Digg users pissed and heading to Mixx.
12. Frustrated with Digg, head over to Mixx – Yet another article on making the switch to Mixx.
13. Tired of Digg? Then Try Mixx – Wow, not too many people seem to like big Digg.
14. What A Mixx Up: Interview With Mixx Founder Chris McGill – Brian Wallace does an interview with Mixx founder Chris McGill.
15. 12 Reasons to Join Mixx and Abandon Digg – 12 more reasons to join Mixx.
16. Getting into the Mixx – More views on Mixx.
17. Mixx: My Blend of the Web – Her thoughts of Mixx.
18. I Love Mixx, but I’m Still a Digger – Some will always be a slave to Digg.
19. It’s In The Mixx – Some more Mixx Info.
20. Why Digg Should Be Scared of Mixx – Why Mixx should be causing Digg to shake in their loafers.

That should get you started for now. Mixx looks like it could be a serious Digg contender with some work. Leave any Mixx resources you have in a comment so I can add them in later.

Now that you know Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, it’s time to get familiar. Heres 89 tools, articles, and resources sorted into categories. Use these to create a powerful Twitter following, and increase the visibility of your brand.

Don’t forget to bookmark and subscribe!

Twitter 101:      
1. The Big Juicy Twitter Guide
2. Twictionary – A dictionary for Twitter.
3. TwitDir – Another Twitter directory.
4. The Twitter Blog
5. Explore Twitter

Twitter Media:

6. TweetPic
7. Twitxr
8. Twittershare
9. SnapTweet – Send Flickr photos to Twitter.  
10. Twiddeo – Twitter plus video.
11. TwitterGram – Share audio.
12. TwitSay – Give your Twitter account a voice.

Twitter Stats:

13. TweetBurner – Track what happens with the links you share.
14. Twitt(url)y – Tracks what URLs Twitter users are talking about.
15. Twitter Charts
16. Twitstat
17. TweetStats
18. TwitterBuzz – What people are linking to.
19. Twittermeter
20. Tweet Volume – Enter words or phrases and see how often they appear on Twitter.
21. Twitter Vision  
22. Twitterholic

Friends & Followers:

23. FriendFeed – Discover what your friends are sharing.
24. Twitter Karma
25. TweetWheel – Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other.
26. Who Should I Follow? – Twitter Friend Recommendations.
27. Intwition
28. CrowdStatus – Create a crowd.
29. My Tweeple
30. GroupTweet
31. Twitter 100
32. Quotably – Follow Twitter conversations.
33. TwitterLocal
34. TwitterVerse
35. Twemes – Twitter memes.
36. Tweetmeme
37. TwitterWho – Batch people search.

Spam Protection:

38. The Twitter Blacklist
39. Twitter Twerp Scan
40. Twitter Snooze

Twitter Organization:

41. Socialthing
42. Twittercal – Tweet your Google calendar.
43. Twitter Digest
44. Twitku – Read posts on Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.
45. Twitter Timer – Set an alarm for things you need to remember.
46. Twitt.icio.us – Send links from Twitter to del.icio.us.
47. Twitter Where

Twitter Tools:

48. Summize – Search Twitter in real time.
49. Twitter Search – A customized search engine for Twitter.
50. YouTwit
51. TwittEarth  
52. Twhirl – A desktop client for Twitter.
53. Snitter – Desktop client for Mac and Windows.
54. Twitterific – Desktop client for Mac.
55. gTwitter – Desktop client for Linux.
56. Witty – Desktop client for Vista.
57. Twitteroo – Desktop client for the PC.
58. TwitterPod – Desktop client for Mac.
59. Twitux – Desktop client for Gnome.
60. Twitterberry – Mobile client for Blackberry.
61. Email Twitter – Mobile client.
62. Twoble – Mobile client for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.

Twitter for Email:

63. TwitterMail
64. OutTwit

Twitter IM:

65. TwitterIM

Twitter Widgets:

66. Twitter Opera Widget
67. Twitter Widget
68. Twadget

Other Twitter Articles + Resources

69. How To Find Your Target Audience on Twitter – SmmGuru
70. Twitter Is A Tool! You Might As Well Use It – SmmGuru
71. Easy Way To Get More Twitter Followers From Your Blog – SmmGuru
72. How Does Twitter Define Spam – SmmGuru
73. 7 Tips For New Twitter Accounts – SmmGuru
74. Tweeting for Companies 101 – HorsePigCow
75. 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence – ProBlogger
76. 13 Odd Ways to Use Twitter – Social Media Trader
77. Twitter Feeds Made Simple – ClickPopMedia
78. Video: Twitter in Plain English – Common Craft
79. How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity – Marketing Vox
80. Twitter and Business: The Conclusion – Business and Blogging
81. How We Use Twitter for Journalism – ReadWriteWeb
82. 10 Things Twitter Users Should Not Do – Valley Wag
83. Twitter Hashtags and Groups – American Pai
84. 8 Awesome Firefox Plugins for Twitter – Mashable
85. 10 Ways Twitter Can Boost Your Social News Profile – ReadWriteWeb
86. Copyright and Twitter – Blog Herald
87. My Essential Twitter Tools – Web-Strategist.com
88. Twitter May Not Have to Worry About Uptime Anymore – TechCrunch
89. Why Decentralizing Twitter is so Important – Scripting.com

RSS is one of your most valuable tools as a social media marketer. Here is a list of 139 tools and articles that will let you master the craft of converting visitors to subscribers, and increasing your return traffic. Resources include feed creation, promotion, stats, conversion, plugins, validation, and more. Don’t forget to bookmark and comment if you have some to add.

Creating RSS Feeds   
1. RSS Tutorial from mnot.net
2. RSS Tutorial from SiteArticles.com
3. RSS Utilities: A Tutorial
4. RSS Tutorial from W3 Schools
5. RSS Tutorial – Introduction and Overview
6. Creating RSS Files for Your Website
7. Creating a Custom RSS Feed with PHP and MySQL
8. How to Create RSS Feeds with Dreamweaver
9. How to Create an RSS 2.0 Feed
10. How to Create an RSS Feed with Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer
11. How to Create an RSS Feed from any Web Page
12. Set Up a Simple Syndication Feed Using RSS
13. Making an RSS Feed
14. Make RSS Feeds
15. Create RSS

RSS Tools

16. FeedBurner
17. Fedafi WordPress plugin
18. Feed Cycle
19. URL Fan
20. Ebay 2 RSS
21. FeedMagick
22. Feedverter
23. Flickr Widget
24. RSS ZeitGeist
25. RSS Calendar
26. Tag Cloud
27. Diodia
28. Headline Toolbar
29. RSS Feeds Toolbar
30. Feed Scout
31. My RSS Toolbar
32. Feed Roll Pro
33. Feed Digest
34. Blog Bomb
35. Feed Icons
36. Add This
37. Create custom icons
38. Podcast icons
39. RSS Button Maker
40. RSS Icon Gallery
41. Feed Button
42. Custom Button Maker

Ping Services

43. Ping-O-Matic
44. Pinger from Blog Flux
45. Pingoat

RSS Feed Software

46. Feed Editor
47. MyRSSCreator
48. RSS Content Builder
49. Feed for All
50. Feeder

RSS Feed Readers

51. FeedLounge
52. FeedShow
53. Rojo
54. Blog Bridge
55. News Monster
56. PixelNews
57. GreatNews
58. Particls
59. Anothr
60. FeedDemon
61. NewsLife
62. Straw
63. RSS Owl
64. Netvibes
65. FeedReader
66. Bloglines
67. NewsGator
68. My Yahoo
69. Active Web Reader
70. SurfPack
71. Awasu
72. Pageflakes
73. Daily Rotation
74. RSS Bandit
75. NewzCrawler
76. Juice
77. Snarfer
78. Omea
79. Shrook

RSS Monetizing

80. Feedvertising
81. FeedBurner
82. Pheedo
83. Orange Feed

RSS Forums

84. Digital Point
85. Webmaster World
86. NewsGator
87. Lockergnome
88. RSS Bandit

Mobile RSS Readers

89. mReader
90. NewsGator Go
91. Egress
92. LiteFeeds
93. Mobilerss.net
94. FreeRange
95. Quick News

RSS Feed Conversion

96. Feed Maker
97. Apexoft
98. Atom2RSS
99. NewsAloud
100. RSS2PDF
101. Google2RSS
102. RSS2HTML
103. RSSgenr8
104. Magpie RSS
105. FeedYes
106. Feed43
107. RSS to JavaScript
108. RSS News JavaScript Ticker
109. Feed Sweep
110. Widgetbox

RSS Email Tools

111. News Gator Email Edition
112. R-Mail
113. RSS2Email
114. FeedBlitz
115. PopHeadlines
116. RssFwd

RSS Validation Services

117. Walidator
118. Redland RSS Validator
119. Feed Validator
120. RSS Validator

Various Articles

121. Introduction to RSS
122. What is RSS? RSS Explained
123. RSS Specifications
124. RSS 2.0 Specification
125. History of RSS
126. 35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today
127. Making Headlines with RSS
128. The Evolution of RSS
129. 8 Easy Ways to Monetize Your RSS Feed
130. RSS – Taking it to the People

Firefox RSS Extensions

131. Sage
132. Thunderbird
133. RSS Ticker
134. Wizz
135. Blog Rovr
136. InfoRSS
137. Beatnik
138. NewsFox
139. Feed Sidebar

One of the best things you can do when starting a new blog is submit it ti every blog related site you can. Here are 48 of the best places you can submit your blog. This will help create backlinks to your blog and get you some starting traffic that you can use to grow. And we all know what big traffic brings… Direct links to submit pages included.

Top 48 Places To Submit Your Blog – Don’t Forget To Bookmark

• Dmoz Open Directory Project
• B4Blogs Directory – Submit Page
• Best Blogs – Submit Page
• TailRank
• Blawg – Submit Page
• Top Blog Area – Submit Page
• Bigger Blogger
• BlogAdr – Submit Page
• Aviva Directory – Submit Page
• BlogBunch – Submit Page
• BlogCode – Submit Page
• Blog Directory – Submit Page
• Blog Watch
• 5 Star Blogs – Submit Page
• Bloggapedia
• BloggerNow
• Blogging Fusion – Submit Page
• Read A Blog – Submit Page
• SpillBean
• BlogIntro – Submit Page
• Blog Listing – Submit Page
• Bloggernity – Submit Page
• BlogListing.net – Submit Page
• Blogoozle – Submit Page
• BlogPulse – Submit Page
• Technorati – Submit Page
• BlogRankings
• Blogarama – Submit Page
• Blogs Collection – Submit Page
• MyBlogDirectory
• BlogSweet
• Blog Top List – Submit Page
• Blog Universe – Submit Page
• Blogz – Submit Page
• Brit Blog – Submit Page
• Blog Dust – Submit Page
• Blogdup – Submit Page
• BlogFlux – Submit Page
• GetBlogs
• Globe of Blogs – Submit Page
• Eaton Web Blog Directory
• FindingBlog – Submit Page
• I Blog Business – Submit Page
• LS Blogs – Submit Page
• BlogSearch – Submit Page
• Strategic Board – Submit Page
• Super Blog Directory – Submit Page
• Small Business Blog Directory – Submit Page

For all of you novices this should get you started on the right foot.

Building a strong StumbleUpon account can lead you to large success in building an audience. Here are 36 different articles and tips on how to build the best StumbleUpon account possible.

Don’t forget to subscribe to SMMGuru.com!

StumbleUpon 101

• StumbleUpon Official FAQ The O.G. version.
• How To Stumble – Pretty straight forward, they will tech you how to stumble.
• Unoffical StumbleUpon FAQ – Again… Pretty self-explanatory
• Beginners Guide to StumbleUpon
• StumbleUpon Help Forum – StumbleUpon’s official help forums.

Become A StumbleUpon Celebrity

• StumbleRank – Ranks the top StumbleUpon users.
• How to Become a Top StumbleUpon User (or Why You Really Shouldn’t Bother)
• StumbleUpon – How to make yourself a good stumbler
• stumbleGods – Learn StumbleUpon from those with the most powerful thumbs on the service.
• How to Use StumbleUpon Like a Pro
• How do you become a StumbleUpon power user? Ask a 16 year old.
• Making a Power Account on StumbleUpon

The StumbleUpon Network

• Whiteboard Friday – “How to Win Friends & Influence People” – SEOMOZ video on establishing yourself on these networks.
• Building Your Blog with StumbleUpon
• Share Your Stuff: Effectively and Ethically Submitting Pages to StumbleUpon & Stumblers
• stumbleXchange – Use at your own risk!
• Are you banned by StumbleUpon? What is the consequence?
• Organic Stumbling Tip

Use StumbleUpon For Traffic

• A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website – A great article at Dosh Dosh on how to create a powerful StumbleUpon account.
• How to Draw StumbleUpon Users Into Your Blog – A nice ProBlogger.net post on retaining your StumbleUpon traffic.
• How to Use StumbleUpon to Promote – Information on using StumbleUpon as a promotional tool.
• StumbleUpon Optimization: Leveraging Photo Stumbles for More Web Traffic – Learn how pictures in your content can induce traffic from StumbleUpon.
• The Why, How and Who of Marketing in StumbleUpon – Combining StumbleUpon with marketing.
• 5 Tactics for Driving Traffic From StumbleUpon – Five more ways to drive traffic with StumbleUpon.
• The Ultimate Guide to Leveraging StumbleUpon – An article on leveraging StumbleUpon with stats included.
• How Important is StumbleUpon? – A thorough look at StumbleUpon.

Business Use of StumbleUpon

• Run a StumbleUpon Advertising Campaign For Your Blog – Use StumbleUpon’s advertising to drive traffic to your blog.
• Stumbleupon can get your AdSense Account Banned for Invalid Impressions Fraud – An important read for anyone who makes most of their money from AdSense.
• How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide – A break down of StumbleUpon for Business users.

Advanced Topics

• Advanced Stumbling – A wiki page with some advanced Stumbling tactics discussed.
• Using StumbleUpon PhotoBlog It!
• Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers – Learn how StumbleUpon decides where to send its users.

Third Party StumbleUpon Tools

• StumbleCrumble WordPress Plugin – Show your latest Stumbles.
• StumbleUpon Facebook Application – Same as the above, but for Facebook.
• Del.icio.us Stumble – Convert your del.icio.us bookmarks into stumbles.
• StumbleUpon WYSIWYG Editor

And there you have it. Using these great articles and tools you should be able to take over the web (or maby just your niche ) in no time. The great advantage to building strong accounts on sites like these is that later on when you are starting a new project for example you have some leverage. Once it’s built, you have a powerful user base at your fingertips.

For those of you who claim social media cannot help you due to the niche you are in, I highly doubt it. Here is a list of the top social media sites per their niche. Check them out and start using them to your benefit, these sites can generate a large amount of traffic when used properly. Don’t Forget To Bookmark!