As I settle down to scribe about blog commenting, small cup of tar they call coffee from the company kitchen in tow, the irony that I don’t have commenting active on this blog is not lost upon me. A comment system, for better or worse, is in the queue for installation, but for now we roll old school, one-way styles.

One of my favorite bloggers, Maki of DoshDosh, wrote about this topic of rethinking blog comments, whereby he encourages his readers to think of leaving comments as more than just a quick way to get web traffic but rather, view them as a valuable networking tool. “It’s not just a hyperlink but a long-term representation of your brand.”

For those that don’t know it, the name you leave with your comment becomes the anchor text to the URL address you provide. The link may or may not be a factor with the search engine algorithms, but I suspect they are taken into consideration which gives people an opportunity for SEO. For instance, you can leave the name of your blog or a clever nickname with the key word you are hoping to optimize. Leaving comments also provides link juice for your site as long as the blog is a “nofollow” free zone.

Self-aggrandizing aside, comments are a conversational tool and since the social sphere of the web radiates from discussion, it would behoove us all to think about an enduring commenting approach, or as Maki writes, “Think long-term: not just incoming traffic today but exposure down the road. Don’t just focus on getting an immediate return (visitors via your link drop) but use comments to develop relationships of ongoing value.”

I dropped my twitter feed in a comment on Andy Beal’s article, 200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter, and I am still feeling the follow-love. Thank you, Andy! I hope I am providing some decent tweetage for those following me. We are all seeking legitimate relationships with formidable people in this space; engaging with an author and the voices around a particular topic is a wonderful way to tribe up with like-minded individuals as well as assert your voice and brand to foster lasting relationships.

The coffee is done now and so am I.

**Photograph entitled Shadwo Conversation by crazyc78

From the casual blogger to the internet famous, we all want to know if online promotional efforts are yielding any traction. If you are promoting yourself, endorsing products or services, engaging in reputation management and SEO or simply culling the web for story fodder, there are some fun and *cough* addictive tools you must check out:

Addicto-o-matic let’s you inhale the web using a keyword search to find video, photos and blog posts on several major Web 2.0 portals embedded with the sought after phrase. I foresee this as an incredible tool to research a particular subject or ferret out where your name shows up online. It can also be a wonderful waste of voyeuristic time. Try it and let me know what you think.

And for the Twitter-centric among you, check out Summarize. This application allows the user to search Twittersations in real time; a great tool for culling timely and topical content surfacing on the web. A recent article written by ReadWriteWeb on using Twitter for journalism confirmed my suspicions that Twitter is not just an excuse to “power instant message” all day long but a formidable tool for your online arsenal. Twitter is awesome resource for discovering breaking stories and conversations and Twitt(url)y does a fabulous job of tracking what URLs people are spinning with their twitter updates. In fact, it operates similar to Digg in that it’s a community polled service; the links to the same URL is considered a vote, moving the URL further up the list.

With user reviews garnering more and more authority over our purchasing decisions there’s Omgili. Find out what people are saying about the products you are looking for from electronics to computers to books and apparel. As a business owner, this may be an ideal place to check out what people are saying about your wares and manage your online reputation; as a writer, this is a helpful application to gather conversations happening around a product you may be reviewing.

I’m off to search Gummy+Bears and see if there’s a sticky story out there. Ah, so many tools, so little time.

Don’t cut your precious bunny paw off despite your fuzzy hind leg. Luck may be closer than you think. It’s unofficially Katrina Recommends day; herein, you will discover all things delicious, sip-tastic, listen-worthy and otherwise awesome, as it were.

I hereby recommend nibbling a cardamom chocolate truffle dusted with sea salt created by Portland’s own Sarah Hart of Alma Chocolate while sipping on a glass of 2005 Pellegrini Carignan, a deeply garnet colored beauty whose luscious plum, spicy allure and soft tannins will compliment every savory bite. If you want more with your perfect wine/choco moment in time, I suggest you nibble & sip while listening to the new album by Fleet Foxes, scheduled to release in June 2008. The Seattle based band recently signed with SubPop Records, home of Go! Team, Band of Horses, The Helio Sequence, Iron and Wine, The Shins, The Postal Service, Wolf Parade, Flight of the Conchords. If only name dropping could say it all. Give them a listen; their carefully arranged hymns, block harmonies and throw-back shaggy rock moments make Fleet Foxes ideal for any sensory-gluttonous activity.

The author of this article was not paid, sponsored or otherwise greased by any of the recommended parties mentioned in this article. While not completely on topic for the “Social Media Gallery”, I hope it is received with as much social enjoyment as it was composed.

Coffee consumptive and stumbling through my rss feeds early one morning, I discovered a blog post about Colorwars 2008. It’s like end of summer camp only online with hundreds of players deep people ready to play virtual tug o’ war. Since I commute to my computer everyday to make connections and seek community, I am thinking this discovery rocks. After all, there’s always something more we can do within all these virtually-peopled platforms we belong to.

Creator Zefrank and the genius coders around him have devised a way for virtual teams to engage in colorwar events (Ro Sham Bo, Bingo, Microphone) using functioning environments such as twitter, Flickr, SayNow and YouTube. It’s brilliant! There’s even a place to follow the smacktalk between the teams. I joined Team Naked for obvious reasons.

Ah…I will forever adore the proliferation of creative ways we can engage with one another online; it makes the computer commute that much more inspiring.

An aside: if you’re super into old school games turned new school online fun, you can also check out tweetpotato, a game of tossing a virtual “hot po-tater” around with your friends. Sign up for the beta and follow me @nikitascene.

Did you know that if you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee or that the average woman consumes over 6lbs of lipstick in her lifetime? Well how now? Life is collection of discoveries - some large and some small – waiting to be gathered up and woven into the blanket sum of us.

Along our journey, we seek revelation of the self in a myriad of ways; with the current deluge of self-help property, the resources from which to pull are seemingly endless. Growing up an avid Fraggle Rock fan, I collected bits of wisdom from Marjory the Trash Heap, the matronly, sentient compost heap. According to her rat-like companions Philo and Gunge, who served as her shills, the Trash Heap knows all and sees all. In fact Marjory is all: "I'm orange peel, I'm coffee grounds, I'm wisdom!" You’d lay on her your woes and Marjory, the all-knowing, would sing you a groovy jam and hit you with some wicked advice and all would be restored in the world.

With the 80s regrettably over and the wise compost pile put to pasture, advice is readily vailable online from self-help channels to guru-inspired websites to social networking communities. And if you’re a quiz taking fanatic, check out Tickle, an online community offering many applications and features to divine self-discovery and provide social networking opportunities.

Tickle is able to apply science to help members build and manage relationships. Tickle's "Think Tank" of certified PhDs ensures that the sites' services are useful and the content is relevant. Thus, members have access to practical scientific data that helps them to discover themselves, and better connect with others - a combination that makes the platform truly powerful.

Ask and you shall receive. I took the quiz, “Where does your inner compass point?” and discovered that I’m an adventurer in the truest sense, spontaneous and flexible with a passion for trying new places and things. No maps, no plan, no timelines. I'd rather let the road take me wherever it may lead. North, south, east, or west — my inner compass has no limits. Hmm, where will my next adventure be? Maybe I need to consult my promotional therapist in a box kit? Sometimes the best advice is imprinted and found right in front of you, on your desk.