"Though profile images have been available with the other commenting options, we are happy to bring them to embedded comments as part of the Blogger Birthday feature series," says Lu Chen of the Google-owned Blogger.

The series Chen refers to has so far included things like:

- a partnership with Blog2Print tha allows users to turn their blogs into books

- a partnership with Widgetbox , which allows users to turn blogs into widgets

- jump breaks, which let bloggers show a snippet of a post on the blog’s index page with a "read more" link

- the SocialVibe gadget, which lets bloggers earn donations for charitable causes

- the Blogger NavBar, which lets blog readers click to share blog posts/blog hompages

- the label cloud and selected labels – extensions of the labels gadget

- the send to feature, which lets users send posts to Blogger

- support for the PubSubHubbub protocol

As part ot today’s announcement, Blogger has also made it easier to upload profile pictures when you leave a comment. From the comment preview, users can just click "add a photo" and upload one. The next time they comment on any Blogger blog, their photo will appear.

1. Comment more. In the rush of client work and blogging, the easiest thing to stop doing regularly is reading and commenting on other posts.  Putting out content that people are interested in is great, but the best way to participate in the conversation is still frequently commenting on other people’s blog posts.  Not just thanking someone for a link, but reading blogs that I normally wouldn’t and extending my community (as well as my mind).  I know that I discover many new blogs through the people who leave comments on my posts.  Other bloggers are just the same.
2. Answer the phone less. In order to have time to comment more, something else needs to give.  For me, it will definitely be the phone.  I have caller ID and can recognize calls from family, colleagues or clients.  If the number doesn’t show as any of those three that I recognize, I don’t answer.  Ever.  In the latter half of 2007, I started doing this and it helped to avoid time-sucking calls.  For anyone interested in ever pitching me anything, the worst possible way to do it would be to call me.  Best would be email, and that will likely continue into 2008.  Technically speaking, I realize this is probably not a social media resolution as much as a general one.  If that bothers you, feel free to call me.
3. Make better friends (and be one too). The first thing I should clarify is that this is not a criticism of online friends that I have now.  The danger is, with all these social networks and invites flying back and forth, there are people who are now my "friends" that I don’t know very well.  My third resolution is to try harder to get to know them.  Though it’s tempting to get into a race where your aim becomes to reach 1000 followers on Twitter or and equally high number of Facebook friends, it doesn’t offer anything more than a temporary ego boost.  I want to be friends with people that I have some sort of personal connection with, and who feel the same with me.  I should be able to send each one a note to ask for help with something, and they should feel the same ability to do so with me.  That’s what I mean by better friends.

I figure, if I can do those three things then I’ll be on my way to a great 2008.  Well … that and eating better or exercising more often, of course.

 Comments

In this post, he explains how he was able to generate a lot of traffic to his blog by simply engaging other bloggers in conversation. I’ve said before that commenting on other blogs is a great way to build awareness and traffic, now Douglas offers hard proof of that.

26.13% of visits to my site are through connections I’ve made through other sites! In addition, the number of page views of those visits is 1.86 pages versus 1.61 page views of those that find my site through search and other means. Wow! I hate to throw out the term flippantly, but this is the “Long Tail” of commenting, isn’t it?

Oh, and that second example? It’s not quite as obvious, but Douglas linked out to every blogger that sent traffic from the comments section. It got my attention – I made the Top 10 of his list of referrers – and I am sure others will either visit or link to his post.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.

If your weblog currently doesn’t have much of an audience, then an easy way to build an audience is to constructively leverage audiences already fostered by more established bloggers in your field. This means being proactive about building new connections.

I’ve used this myself and know many others that have come to MP and been very vocal in my comments section – coincidently they usually have a new blog themselves.

Not surprisingly, Amy’s post has attracted a lot of comments.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.

Although Massive is privately held, sources commenting in a Wall Street Journal report believe Microsoft could shell out between $200 million and $400 million for the company.

We mentioned Massive last year and noted how the placement of in-game advertising could reach the highly-coveted young male demographic in a medium that has occupied much of their time in recent years. At the time, Nielsen Entertainment figures cited by Massive said those gamers spend 12.5 hours per week gaming and less than 10 watching TV.

Given the dynamic way Massive’s technology has been described, the purchase looks destined for Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming network. Microsoft can use Massive to quickly switch ads for breaking news on the debut of a movie or release of a new CD by a band.

The deal presents a win-win scenario for game publishers. Microsoft would broker the advertising buys, and share the revenue with game designers. Those designers can facilitate the placement of ads by incorporating elements into a game where ads could be logically displayed.

That ad presentation could be extended from the purely online gaming realm to the Xbox 360 console-only titles. Since Xbox Live users connect their 360s to the Internet, Massive could deliver ads to those console titles over the broadband connection, and update those ads on the fly based on advertiser demand.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Sources commenting to Rafat Ali at PaidContent.org claim the rumors of Jason Calacanis’ ascension through the AOL ranks are true. Ali noted that a new version of Netscape.com is in the offing:

Ali said it isn’t clear whether the new Netscape would be a tech news aggregator or a more general content approach, but thinks the latter is more likely.

AOL has put a lot more emphasis on the Internet since last July, when the company shifted virtually all of its walled-garden of content to the web in an “audience-driven” model.

They have a lot of content and providers as resources for such a site, but there would be a danger of overwhelming the minimalist appeal of a Digg-style site with too many extras beyond solid functionality, though.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.