Twitter bird icon courtesy of Smashing Magazine. Click the bird, get my book!

Are you a frustrated blogger? Are you spending way too much time marketing your blog, with little results to show for it? Do you wish there were an easier way?

You’ve probably heard lots of good things about Twitter, but maybe it still seems like a waste of time to you. I sure used to think so. Who cares what everyone else is doing?

But that was then. Today, I’m a converted tweeter. Not only do I love using Twitter, but it’s my #3 traffic source (after search engines and StumbleUpon). I’ve cut back drastically on other forms of blog marketing, because Twitter works better for me in a number of ways.

If you’re one of the many bloggers who…

• Doesn’t see why everyone loves Twitter so much
• Thinks Twitter is for telling people what you had for breakfast
• Doesn’t think they have time for Twitter
• Thinks Twitter will destroy their productivity
• Doesn’t know why Twitter needs to be part of your traffic growth strategy
• Thinks Twitter is just for social media geeks
• Or even if you’ve never heard of Twitter until now

…then Why Bloggers Need Twitter is for you! Grab your free copy right now, and learn why you can’t afford not to be on Twitter.

And for those of you who are already Twitter aficionados, feel free to leave your Twitter link in the comments. Tell us why you like Twitter so much, and why we should follow you. Oh, and follow me at @hnuttall!

I had some technical difficulties with my blog recently. Some files got corrupted, and I wasn’t able to log in. I don’t know if I was hacked, but it made me wonder.

Since then, I’ve been a lot more interested in WordPress security. That’s how it goes, right? We’re not concerned about what could go wrong until something happens. But if you have a blog, there’s a good chance that someone will try to hack it someday. When that happens, you don’t want them to succeed.

John Hoff from WpBlogHost offers a WordPress security upgrade, normally priced at $49.95. From now until Thursday 5/7/2009, use the promo code “Hunter” to get it for just $24.95.

Here are some of the things included in the security upgrade:

• Rename your database tables so they don’t start with “wp_,” making them harder for hackers to find.
• Protect your login page from brute force password attacks.
• Prevent other people from accessing pages and directories you don’t want them in, such as your login page.
• Block people who attempt common hacker attacks, such as SQL injection.
• Hide your WordPress version number, so you won’t be seen as a target if your version isn’t up to date.

Of course, nothing is 100% secure. But just like a bank is far more secure than a hot dog stand, a blog with these security upgrades is far more secure than a blog using the default installation. I highly recommend a one-time investment in this security upgrade to all WordPress bloggers. I feel way more secure now than I did before.

Whether you have a blog or not, take a minute to consider all the passwords you use online. Just because your password is a little harder to guess than “password1″ doesn’t mean it’s secure. Make sure you’re not using dictionary words, or names, or sequential numbers. Use a mix of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t use the same password for every site, and change them periodically.

Does good content matter in the blogosphere? Recently there has been quite a bit of discussion suggesting that perhaps it doesn’t.

James at Men with Pens wrote about Getting Creative With Your Content, or rather, how people are not getting creative with their content:

“I scroll through my feed reader, my attention dulled by the similar headlines. They’re carbon-copy titles that make a desperate attempt to grasp my attention. Some – very few – do. But I’m often quickly disappointed. The headline may be mildly intriguing, but the content of the first paragraph is just the same old stuff. Nothing new, nothing entertaining, nothing interesting.”

Skellie wrote about Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online. Considering how many people admire her writing, it surprised me a bit to see her say this:

“Good writing, clever writing, beautiful writing — all of these things are unnecessary in the creation of great web content…clever turns of phrase, immaculate grammar, flawless spelling and crisp sentences are relatively insignificant.”

(Her point was that “all great web writing must do is communicate great ideas without getting in their way,” but I’d contend that even great ideas don’t necessarily matter, as evidenced by the success of certain blogs).

These posts received a flood of comments from people on both sides of the issue. I felt that a lot of people were doing their best to resist admitting what deep down they know is true: maybe great content really doesn’t matter that much.

It occurred to me that perhaps we’re looking at this the wrong way. Instead of lamenting the sad state of the blogosphere, maybe we should just give the people what they want: rehashed content. And I have a tool that will save you a lot of time in creating it: the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher.

Now you can easily rehash content from these blogs:

• 4-Hour Workweek
• IttyBiz
• Hunter Nuttall . com
• Men with Pens
• ProBlogger
• Seth Godin’s Blog
• Skelliewag.org
• Steve Pavlina . com
• Zen Habits

(I chose these blogs because they’re some of the well-known blogs I read. I’m not saying that they consist of rehashed content.)

Just fire up the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher and pick a blog. Adjust some parameters to fit your writing style, click “Rehash it,” and it spits out a brand new post for you, using word choice similar to the selected blog. It even gives you an image to use.

Some of you English majors may quibble with the grammar of what it spits out, but it really doesn’t matter. As you may know, people don’t read every word, they just scan. As long as your post contains a few buzzwords, it’s golden.

If you write (or read) content online or anywhere else good writing doesn’t matter, I’ve just saved you thousands of hours and given you a practically infinite number of free posts. I may have even improved the quality of your content.

Me Hunter. You read.