It's a double celebration today: Blogtipping Day and Canada Day! If you haven't heard of blogtipping, the rules are simple: * Say 3 good things about 3 blogs you enjoy. * And for each of the 3 blogs, give 'em a piece of advice or a tip. (Blogtipping Day is the 1st of every month, so you can go and blogtip someone now, or get ready for August.) BLOG #1: Marketing Pilgrim from Andy Beal 1. Has a great writing style: short, to-the-point but informative, with his own opinions sprinkled throughout. 2. States his opinions clearly, and isn't afraid to go against the "common grain." 3. He's a hockey fan (albeit a Carolina one). And if Andy ever visits Montreal during hockey season, he's got a standing offer to come see a game with me at the Molson Centre. Tip: I'm not sure I'm in any position to give Andy advice, but I would add reddit as an option below each post (like he has del.icio.us). I've seen reddit work much better than del.icio.us in the past. BLOG #2: copyblogger from Brian Clark 1. I love the design. It's insanely clean, neat and well organized. I don't know if it was a template or a custom job, but it works. 2. Brian engages his community and participates in it. If you read any list of comments on any of his posts, Brian's name will be in there a few times. 3. He sticks to the point, and does so clearly and concisely. I need to write like that. Tip: Link more to external resources. The links are there, but I'd love to see a link section on the right-hand side (to see what Brian reads regularly) and more links to outside resources throughout the posts. BLOG #3: Landing the Deal from Dan Tudor 1. Dan is insanely friendly. I contacted him for some feedback and not only did he respond, but he put a LOT of thought into his response. And we've been talking ever since. In a few emails he's helped me more than I can say, and that says a lot about him and his blog. 2. Dan uses great pictures. I'm not sure he's topped my Sheep-Yoskovitz mashup but most of his pictures grab your attention. They stand out from his design, and they make you ask, "What's this post about?" Here are a couple examples: the guy sleeping in the bathtub | a pizza. 3. Dan writes succinctly, so you can consume a lot of information quickly. And if you don't learn something from his blog you're too drunk from celebrating Canada Day (or Independence Day a couple days early!) Tip: Help me more. I need it. Actually, make it easier for people to reach you. Maybe you don't want fan mail (and I'm sure you don't want spam), but there's really no obvious/easy way to contact you. I think that's a mistake. In fact, it seems quite common on Know More Media blogs, so it might be some sort of policy/approach they have (which I still think is wrong). Dan: people are going to want to email you, thank you, engage you, and help you. Give 'em your email address! (Technorati Tags: blogtipping, dan tudor, copyblogger, brian clark, andy beal, marketing pilgrim, landing the deal, canada day) PS. I hope Easton doesn't mind that I made the Blogtipping logo just a bit more Canadian, eh?