What did the blogosphere have to offer this week? Let’s have a look around and find out!

Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo have apparently been enjoying a fair bit of success with their book and now it seems that they’re going international with their efforts. Darren has just discovered that the book has been translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian market. That’s incredible! Just wait until Chinese, Spanish, and French versions get announced!

Luke McKinney recognizes that sports play an integral role in our society, so it only makes sense to do everything we can to prepare for the big game. For many, that could be NFL Sunday. For others, it could be golf, tennis, hockey, basketball, baseball, or any number of other sports. Whatever the case, the gadgets listed in Luke’s post will certainly make for a more enjoyable day on the lounger… like the remote that doubles as a bottle opener.

JP Holecka, who you might know better through social media spheres as jaypiddy, was recently able to reverse a parking ticket thanks to the power of the iPhone. It was a bogus ticket to begin with, but the power of technology allowed him to provide suitable documentation to prove that the ticket was bogus. Well done, sir! I’d imagine that many of us could do the same with other smartphones too, but it’s great to know that we can use tech in our favor.

John Biehler is slowly getting up there in years. As he anticipates his fortieth birthday next month, he takes a moment to provide his birthday wishlist. No, it’s not a list of gadgets he wants you to buy; it’s more like a rant on the Canadian landscape when it comes to entertainment, technology, and communication. Nokia can indeed do better, but I don’t think Nintendo will change their position any time soon.

Tyler Ingram has had quite the eventful last few weeks. He got engaged to his sweetheart and he’s back to school full-time. That doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily neglecting his photography interests either, as evidenced by a brilliant West End rainbow picture that he took recently. School is different than work, he says, but he’s able to manage thus far. Kudos, Tyler!

Not surprisingly, one of the best marketing techniques that you may want to employ as part of your overall strategy is giving away something for free. You won’t make any money directly from such a promotion, but this tactic can achieve several objectives.

Let’s take the example of the free coffee promotion that McDonald’s has from time to time. First, it will attract some people away from their “usual” coffee places and you may be able to win over some new customers, making McD’s the new preferred coffee shop. Sometimes all it takes is getting the customer to try your product.

Second, while the coffee itself will lose you money, there’s a significant chance that the customer will spend money in other areas. Since they are already in the store, they’ll likely buy their breakfast too. And you can gain profit that way, not to mention that the customer gets to try more of your product.

The same concept of a no-strings-attached freebie has been applied in other areas too. I know that Hastings Racecourse has free breakfast from time to time, knowing full well that the people eating the breakfast will likely lose the money back (and then some) by wagering on the horse races and on-site casino. It works because it gets them in the door.

It’s great that you’re able to attract new visitors to your blog, because it means that you are increasing your audience size and improving your reach. That’s a good thing, but many of these new visitors may not have a clue regarding any of your older content.

How can you direct them to the best articles from your archive without overwhelming them with the increasingly large list of blog posts? The Popularity Contest WordPress plugin could be just the ticket. Rather than select individual posts on your own to highlight, this plugin does it for you.

This plugin, created by veteran developer Alex King, keeps track of your page views across posts, the number of comments, the number of trackbacks, and other statistics to determine which blog posts are the most popular. Each post gets a “popularity” score and you can display the generated list as you see fit.

When used in tandem with other plugins, like Related Posts, you can really direct new visitors to some of the best content that you’ve already written. Check out Popularity Contest in the official WordPress plugin directory, where you’ll also find a FAQ and installation instructions.

You’ve probably heard the saying before. If you can’t beat them, join them. If the rumors were to be believed, it seemed that was the approach that Verizon was trying to take after losing market share to AT&T since the latter has iPhone exclusivity in the United States. However, the strategy has taken an interesting twist in the last year or so.

Instead of adhering to the old saying above, it seems that Verizon may have taken a different one: if you can’t beat them, beat them. Verizon has yet to officially offer an Apple iPhone, but it has definitely carved out a nice little market for itself with the DROID line of smartphones.

Rather than staying down in the dumps and trying to iron out a deal to “join them” by selling an iPhone too, Verizon went ahead and tried to “beat them” by marketing a different line of devices. Yes, AT&T has Android phones too, but Verizon has really pushed the marketing effort in this area and it has paid off in spades. From the Motorola Droid X to the HTC Droid Incredible, these are some impressive devices.

When you find yourself in competition with another business, it might not be the best idea to simply “join them” and sell the same products or offer the same services. In the long run, especially from the perspective of brand differentiation, it is probably better to just “beat them” instead. The challenge is finding the right way to do that.

These days, just about everyone either has or wants a smartphone. They’re not just for business anymore, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not suitable for business anymore either. From BlackBerry to iPhone, these devices are getting more and more powerful by the day. One of the newest announcements was the unveiling of a new suite of smartphones from Nokia.

The most attractive of the bunch is likely the Nokia E7 smartphone. It is powered by the newer Symbian^3 operating system, which allows for customizable homescreens, downloadable apps, and much more. As a business-oriented device, the Nokia 7 also has full support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

The four-inch touchscreen display features ClearBlack technology, helping to provide better outdoor visibility than conventional cell phone displays. Text entry comes by way of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, while high-resolution photos and 720p HD videos can be recorded using the on-board eight-megapixel camera. Other features include HDMI out, 16GB internal memory, and 13.6mm of thickness.

There was no explicit mention of a North American launch of the Nokia E7 during the product’s unveiling, but they did note a fourth quarter 2010 release for many markets with the price set at 495 Euro. That works out to just under US$650 with current exchange rates.

G’day, mate! If you’re in the mood for a little more personality in your wardrobe, you may want to check out some of the hats available for purchase through Brier Enterprises. With its website hosted through BlueFur, Brier itself is based out of the beautiful Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada.

Rather than sticking with regular baseball caps and trucker hats, Brier Enterprises currently specializes in two types of hats: Barmah leather hats and Rogue leather hats by Selke. To some people, these hats may look like they are best suited for the Australian Outback, but that’s up to your own interpretation! Each line of hats comes in a number of different styles and colors too, so you’re sure to find one that suits your personal preference.

Brier Enterprises was established in 1993 and the inspiration for selling these style of full grain leather and canvas hats came after the founding family made visits to South Africa and Australia. The hats were then brought to North America and 1999 and Brier Enterprises has been running as a family-based business ever since.

Do you use BlueFur to host your websites? Let us know and we can feature you in a future blog post. Send an email message to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website URL, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.