What’s going on with bloggers this week? Let’s have a look.

Craig Burr is a full-time freelance writer, but like anyone else in any other industry, he’s on a constant learning curve. As such, he turned to the expertise of fellow freelance writer Michael Kwan for some tips, advice, and insight into the business. The interview has now been posted online.

The Thinking Blog doesn’t have to be deep and philosophical all the time. It can have some fun too, which is why the site has compiled a list of Angry Birds alternatives that you can play online. The casual and social gaming industries are positively ready to explode in 2011 and some of these titles could indeed be leading the charge.

Meg Fowler is going about things in a slightly different way. Other people may be setting (or already forgetting) their new year’s resolutions, but Meg is outlining seven things she’s not changing this year. I guess a promise to maintain the status quo could be construed as a resolution, but Fowler probably wouldn’t agree with that.

Gus Fosarolli has already left on a jet plane. It may not have been a G6, but he now finds himself in Buenos Aires. After some delays at the airport and some confusion with the rental unit, Gus is now settled into his temporary “tiny” apartment in the city. We look forward to all of the pics and stories that he’ll surely have to share.

Josh Rimer is what you might call a YouTube pro. It’s his full-time profession, but even he is quick to point out that the YouTube paycheck doesn’t pay the bills. You have to be able to parlay your YouTube presence into other revenue streams, because the partner program doesn’t make all that much cash.

What do you do when you are surrounded by many different competitors, all of which are fundamentally selling the same kinds of products and services? What can you do to differentiate yourself from these other companies, separating yourself enough from the crowd to garner the interest of your potential customers?

One great example found at a recent wedding fair in Vancouver was a promotion offered by the Bay. The Bay is already one of the best known department store chains in Canada, but it faces countless other stores that infringe on its clientele. Given the context of a wedding fair, the Bay offered a simple but effective promotion: a free $25 gift card when you set up a wedding gift registry.

Think about that for a moment. By attracting the would-be brides with a relatively small gift of $25, the Bay could easily see thousands of dollars in sales for these gifts. The bride (and groom) would tell their guests that they are registered at the Bay and the gifts can be found there. Wedding gifts are big business. Convince the bride to register there instead of another store and you could see a huge influx in sales.

Think about how you can concoct a similar promotion for your own company that approaches a very specific demographic with a highly appealing offer. Think about how a small gift can easily snowball itself into an avalanche of potential sales.

When you have a multi-author blog, you likely want to split up some of the responsibilities between the different authors. They may get assigned different topic areas to avoid as much overlap as possible. It could also mean that they’re responsible for following up on their own posts if readers have any questions.

There’s just one problem with that. By default, when comments are held in moderation by WordPress, a notification e-mail message is sent to the site’s main administrator. If you have a fairly sizable blog, the site’s main administrator could easily get inundated with far too many e-mail messages. That’s inefficient and things can easily get lost in the mix.

As an alternative, you might want to consider the simply-designed and lengthily-worded Comment Moderation E-mail to Post Author WordPress plug-in. It’s free to download, install, and activate. What it does is send the comment moderation e-mail, as you can tell by the plug-in’s name, to the specific post author.

This way, each author can be held accountable for his or her own blog posts. This way, he or she can more readily respond to queries and comments that arise from the audience. For more information on this plug-in, including installation instructions and the free download link, take a look at 4visions.nl.

Last week, Las Vegas was overrun with thousands of journalists and exhibitors for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. It is there that many new products and technologies are showcased, ranging from smart televisions and car audio equipment. In this way, it represents a great opportunity for companies to build buzz and brand awareness.

As can be expected, a lot of pictures are taken over the course of those few days. For most vendors, this is a good thing. They want to get as much coverage and as many media mentions as possible. The more people who know about your product offerings, the better. That’s why I find it a curiosity when a company tells me not to take any pictures.

That’s exactly what happened when I came across an interesting Tron-themed gaming chair. As a member of the media, I started taking pictures with the intention of providing coverage. I was then approached by a booth representative, saying that pictures were not allowed, even for the press.

Why, then, would you be actively showcasing a product if you did not want it to appear in newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets? The assumption is that they were not able to get the proper Tron licensing agreement in place. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be showcasing that particular product. If you are going to be exhibiting at a trade show, only show what you are comfortable with people seeing (and recording).

Your work can sometimes find you in some rather remote locations. It’s not too much of a problem when you are by a major metropolitan area, but will you be able to communicate with the world when you are in the middle of the mountains or hacking your way through a jungle? You probably won’t if you’re relying on a conventional cell phone signal.

That’s why you may be interested to know about the SPOT Connect device, created by a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar. That name is important, because Globalstar is a proven leader in satellite communications. The Spot Connect, which is about the size of a hockey puck, pairs with your smartphone using a standard Bluetooth connection. From there, you are able to link up to Globalstar’s international satellite network.

No, it doesn’t replace the full functionality that you get with a true satellite phone, but it will allow you to send short text messages to people all around the world. It also allows you to send out tweets via Twitter and you can even update your Facebook status. The communication is just one-way, but at least you have a means of getting the word out should you need to do so.

Basic service with Spot is $100 per year and the device itself sells for about $150. Find more information in this article and on the official website.

As we head into a brand new year, you might be looking to freshen up your company’s existing stationery with some bold new looks. Maybe you just need to stock upon some new business cards or you want to send out some new flyers to both existing and prospective customers.

Whatever the case, you might want to take a look at Calabar Printers, a company that uses BlueFur for its preferred web hosting needs. Based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, Calabar Printers was established in 1970 and it offers an enormous range of pre-print, printing, and post-printing services.

There is no job that is too small or too big. They’ll do everything from letterhead to cheques, posters to post-it notes, booklets to promotional materials. They are also available for supplementary services like binding, trimming, scoring, collating, binding, and shrink-wrapping.

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.