Another late link love post? No excuses here! I was out all weekend from Friday to Sunday at beautiful Penn State University for the annual Arts Fest. It was a pretty sudden move on my behalf, but any time I can get back to visit friends at college is a plus in my mind.

I try to maintain daily posting, but sometimes it’s just not in the card. Many bloggers advocate writing a stock-hold of posts and saving them as drafts so that you can fill blank days with pre-designed articles. I probably spend about twice as much time per post as your typical blogger though, so setting aside 7-8 hours for three good posts isn’t worth my while. It’s never a smart idea to post for the sake of posting, so I decided to take a break. On to a new week, fully refreshed, and ready to go. Let’s uncover some of the best posts for the week ending July 12, 2008. :D

In all honesty, this is one of the best week of posts I have seen and I really enjoyed a lot of them. Jason from The University Kid went over how to analyze a blog to see if they are faking any stats. Affiliate Confession went over the pitfalls of Facebook ads. Zac Johnson had a smart post on the big “Top Affiliate Challenge” competition’s downturn. I caught a hysterical response post from Stephan Miller about my black hat seo techniques post, and even a cool FireFox plugin from Ades Blog.

Stock Market
The roller coaster 2008 stock market continues with the close of another week in the red. This time around, things were caused mostly by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two firms that have faced major concern over a government bailout despite the constant assurance that they are accurately capitalized. On the breaking news front, the Federal Reserve has spelled out a Fannie-Freddie rescue net plan that would kick in liquidity in the event that things take another turn for the worse.

Pending home sales came in at 4.7% below April’s levels, which was a bit worse than expected. However, many are using this opportunity to claim that the housing market has bottomed out and is in repair mode as things improve. Other than the housing market, we had some slightly positive news regarding an improving trade deficit. This week, expect to hear about the PPI and CPI inflation report as a big week in earnings releases kicks off when we hear from the likes of Microsoft, Google and Coca Cola. This week could set an overall tempo for the rest of the summer!

Blogosphere
As I went through some of the better posts of the week, I continue to support the claim that things are improving as the summer progresses and people get more settled in to their roles as bloggers. Despite the fact that this fool keeps leaving you unexpectedly for breaks (haha), it would appear that the Top Affiliate Challenge and Blogging Idol competitions have largely blown over as people turn toward self-improvement.

Speaking of the Blogging Idol competition, have you seen my recent rant post about how the contest is unfairly biased?! Or how about my run-down of the method I used to successfully execute the classic “link bait” article. Hey, it got me tons of attention, links back, conversation, traffic and almost 70 comments. I like to see a break away from the standard tutorial posts every now and then, and I feel that a quick lesson in orderly debating can serve you well. Definitely have a look at the two when you get the chance. ;)

The Week In Focus
This week, I’m going to be putting out a small contest. And by small, I mean that I’m giving away another Flip Mino video camera to the winner. Sound fair to you!? Not to distract from content (as I constantly protest), I intend on publishing a money making method or two that should offer you the chance to boost your stats and income. We’re in the thick of summer, so why not earn some extra spending cash to get out and about every now and then! :razz:

-The Net Fool

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