As you may have noticed there has been a major overhaul of Chessvine.com. I added custom tagging and each individual article connects to four others with the same or similar tag. That has increased my traffic by about double. People are staying longer and reading more articles.

I'm working on Feedburner and e-mail notification in an effort to streamline the RSS feed and keep readers. I have three subscribers so far but for a new site in a niche that's not bad at all for a start. I'll go on an subscription hunt after everything is properly implemented.

I haven't added any ad networks just yet but I'm still in the process of building consistent traffic so the money would be minimal anyway.

The Chess Blogger Group on facebook has 6 members now. I'm happy with the rate of growth for that group if it continues but it will likely stop growing and I'll have to start inviting bloggers with personal e-mails.

I still have on my 'to do' list ... a blogroll. It seems like a major omission but I haven't found much use for it yet. Blogs that have linked to us haven't yet added us to their blogroll and my primary traffic is from Google and Wikipedia. Thanks to the business model set forth by John Chow I have already increased my Technorati ranking above what 99% of other chess blogs are ranked. Why hasn't anyone else explored these possibilities?

I'm gaining a small following on Twitter as well which is surprising because I haven't linked it to my phone service and I don't report too frequently from the web.

Anyway, things are going peachy.

The September 1st Deadline for the Chessvine Blogger Contest is fast approaching. Have you entered yet?

I'll restate the rules ...

Guidelines:

• The topic of the essay must be in some way related to chess.


• One entry per person (if you're discovered, you're disqualified).


• You must be the proud owner of a chess blog (the entry can be the first blog entry ever but it must be a blog post).


• Entries received after September 1st, 2008 are ineligible.


• Other qualifications are at Chessvine discretion.

Entry:

To enter simply post the article's URL into the comment field for this blog entry ... it's that simple. Naturally, the article must contain a hyperlink to Chessvine. Otherwise I won't know which article you're submitting.

Prizes

• 1st - A guest blogger account will be created for you on Chessvine for six months. Blog anytime you want about chess and post it to Chessvine. Also, you'll be given advertising space on Chessvine for your blog for six months as an Affiliate of Chessvine.


• 2nd - A guest blogger account on Chessvine allowing you to voice your opinion for three months. Three months of exposure for your blog as an affiliate of chessvine.


• 3rd - A guest blogger account with us for one month.

In addition, any submitted content may be posted by Chessvine and attributed to you (referencing the blog URL). So even if you don't win you may still get exposure from the contest!

Since our mission here on chessvine is to advance chess blogging I've decided to create a chess blogger community on facebook. so ... without any further ado ... or unnecessary building of anticipation ... or looong waiting ... here you go ...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35857294352

If you own a chess blog or just want to support the group you're welcome to join.

Thanks to Tom Chivers the Chessvine Blogger Contest has been featured on the Streatham & Brixton Chess Club Blog (another one of our favorites). While I disagree that the pen is mightier than the pin ... ... I certainly enjoyed Tom's article.

Tom Chivers' blog was voted by the English Chess Federation as Website of the Year for 2007. I appreciate the mention and there has been some valuable feedback from it. I look forward to seeing how the contest develops by the deadline.