Recommended Links and I’m off to the Ekka

Ok, so the “Ekka” will mean absolutely nothing to most people unless you are from Brisbane. Basically the Ekka is an annual show, full of rides, showbags, entertainment, games – a huge funfair for the whole family, as the saying goes.

It’s really for kids – and I haven’t been since I was a kid – but when I recently purchased home and contents insurance for my new house I was given free tickets to the Ekka (how’s that for cross channel marketing!), so I decided to go.

I’ll be there tomorrow and really I go for two reasons – to see animals (cows are so funny!) and for the cadbury showbag, which is chock-full of…chocolate.

In the meantime I offer you some links I’ve collected over the past few weeks that you might find interesting…

Recommended Links

• I write a lot about the concept of Social Proof and I was recently notified of an interesting post over at the Internet Influence Magic blog that features a case study about how social proof can help you be more attractive to women. I’m not sure if the same proof technique works the other way around though!
• Dennis over at The Beta News blog asked me to show everyone my desktop and also asked about some of the common software programs I use every day.
• It’s pretty clear that the niche of “freelancing” is hugely popular at the moment, as demonstrated by Chris, who recently disclosed his freelance writing income for July 2007 and received quite a bit of attention. I should change my blog’s name to “Freelancer’s Journey” .
• Here’s an interesting concept – Sean Aiken is doing a different job each week and video documenting the whole process via a blog. The pilot episode is at a Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto and he recently finished his second week job at a tattoo parlor.
• Lately I’ve started to feel that we bloggers need to know more about the legal implications of what we publish, both in the articles we release to our blogs and the comments left in response. Anne-Marie Nichols offers a nice concise article with some handy links and discussion about what we need to know about copyright protection for photos and content.
• Ben Cook, who is one of my Blog Mastermind students, is running a competition and he’s giving away what he calls – The Complete Blogging Package – and of course Blog Mastermind membership is one of the prizes.
• I’m participating in Blog Action Day – you might want to as well.
• And last but not least, just in case you didn’t know already, my friend Darren Rowse just launched the new Problogger design featuring all kinds of bells and whistles – even a talking Darren head video once a week!