BINGO– here are my top 5 picks of blog posts on Blogging/Internet marketing/Social Media that I read this week:

• WordPress Database Tutorial: Security, Backup, and Efficiency Tips via SEOChat
• WiredWeekend: The Best Blogging Tips around the Community via Blogussion
• How to Get Big Results from Small Ideas via DavidRisley.com
• A Lesson from Curious George for Bloggers via ProBlogger (Darren Rowse)
• Three Ways to Manage Your Attention with FaceBook via The Steve Rubel LifeStream

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First of all, I want to wish all my readers happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are the top five posts I read this week about blogging and/or social media & Internet marketing:

1. Not trying to toot my own horn, here, but if you didn’t see this post with a link to Andy Jenkins’ free video -  “How to Make Videos that Sell” – then I suggest you take a few minutes to watch it. Andy, known in the Internet media realm as the “Video Boss,” has created a series of four free videos that give lots of tips. The third video (which you can also access from this link) teaches exactly how Google created their now famous Super Bowl ad.
2. How to Keep Your Blog Posts Alive for Longer than a Day — By Mikkel Juhl on DaneBlogger | Recycling isn’t just for glass and plastics.
3. The Six Pillars of a Seemingly Successful Blog — via Blogussion | How sturdy are your blog’s pillars?
4. Twitter is Great, But Take the Conversation Back to Your Blog — via David Risley | How to get more reader interaction on your blog.
5. 10 Tactics to Make Your Blog Stand Out – via Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneur’s Journey | Always great advice on Yaro’s blog. He’s one of my favorite teachers on blogging.
6. And, since I included one of my own posts on this list, here’s an extra one, just to make things fair:
   Is Reading Blog Posts Worth Your Time? — via Copyblogger | Are you putting the information you’re learning into action?

• Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work for You and How to Fix It by Chris Garrett
• Should You Be a Tour Guide or an Expedition Leader? via Productive Flourishing
• Video: How to Rapidly Grow Your Blog Traffic by Yaro Starak
• How I Screwed Up My Blog in 2009 by Jade Craven
• Everybody Isn’t Perfect and That Affects Your Blog via DaneBlogger

It’s Potluck Sunday at On Blogging Well, and like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Today I’m going to share an easy way to check the health of your blog. HubSpot has developed a free online tool called Website Grader. Simply type in the URL of your blog and you’re “off to the races” while Website Grader checks various aspects of your blog’s marketability, Search Engine Optimization, and user accessibility and readability. They’ll even email you a free detailed report if you want that includes adjustment suggestions you can make to increase your score. In case you’re wondering, On Blogging Well got an 84% the first go-round, then, after less than 10 minutes of tweaks, I re-submitted the site to Website Grader and scored a 96.2%. Not bad.

Posts of the Week for January 10-16, 2010:

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I’m adding a new element to the Potluck Sunday posts — I’m taking suggestions for post topics. Each Sunday, I’ll still include the “Posts of the Week” at the end of each post, but before that, I’ll write a short post on whatever topic you readers suggest, or perhaps answer a question someone has asked in the comments or via an email, or else a topic I want to share about that might not fit into the other daily categories. So, the suggestion box is now open for suggestions.

Here are my top five picks of blog posts about blogging that I read during the past week:

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