Happy Valentine’s Day!

And a hearty happy single’s awareness Valentine’s day to all you wonderful readers out there!

Just a quick summary and weekly highlights for the blogosphere for today (and links I liked over the week).

Last week I issued the WoW Bloggers Valentine’s day challenge and a number of you answered the bell!

• Rez the Weak – A Love Affair with Flash Heal 
• Gnomeaggedon – Dear Gnome
• Pugnacious Priest – What Every Shadow Priests Want for Valentines Day

Warcraft

• Treebound Cat – An open letter to my Guild: Wherein the Maerdred-ian one suggests his guild scraps Naxx 25 until the standard of raiders increases. Disappointing to read that it has come to this. But sometimes, such actions become necessary.
• Fel Fire – The best application I ever denied: I’d rank Fel Fire as one of the hottest WoW blogs to enter the community. Posts are very compelling (and at times, edge of the seat, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-screen). Definitely added to my A-List blogs on Google Reader. Keeps this up, and I’ll have to shuffle Fel Fire into the blog roll down below.
• Shadow Weaving – Avoid Non-Perma-Pets on Thaddius!: All points bulletin issued by Shadow Weaving for newer Priests who may not be aware of this. Your Shadow Fiend can get positive or negative charges. Potential to wipe the raid!
• Daily Druid – A great one stop shop for all your Druid needs across all specs. It’s just a simple blog that scours for everything Druid related and publishes it here. Great resource! Wonder if he’s going to launch a Priest version.
• Simply Serae – 5 Tips for the starting Class Leader – I never bought into the whole class leader philosophy. I’ve embraced a performance based philosophy where everyone’s knowledge adds up together. I don’t think the knowledge and thinking should revolve around several key players. How did I go through this approach? I recruited players way smarter then I am in terms of theory crafting, raid strategy, and so forth. These are players who like to learn from each other and ask questions so that they can get better. However, I am aware that the class leader system still remains prevalent. And this post has some great tips for that.

Blogging

• Mashable – Personal Branding 102: How to Communicate & Maintain Your Brand: Read the section on evangelize, pitch media (replace reporter with blogger), comment on blogs, write articles and careful listening. A lot of great blogs have difficulty with the promotional and marketing side of things (and are wondering how to attract more readers).
• Freelance Switch – How to Get Stuck Words to Flow Again: Great for guys like me who get stuck on some days wondering what to write next. Sometimes it helps to just fall back to the basics and stick to the system.
• Write to Done – How to Make Your Writing Matter to Your Readers: It starts with writing for your audience. And you know what? Your best audience is you. If you like to read about making gold, then focus on writing about making gold. If your heart is into healing, write about healing. By writing what you would read, you attract readers who are interested in the same things as you are. Start from there and branch out.
• Blogopolis Blueprint – Building Your Blog’s Tribe: If you only read one link from this list, read this one.

Leadership

• Leadership Turn – Ducks in a Row: As you think, so shall you lead: Two important principles. It could help you realign your and re-examine your beliefs. It’s all about your culture. The first? People are intelligent, motivated, and they genuinely want to support their [guild] in achieving its objectives.
• Slow Leadership – Who are you?: Your identity. Do you know what it is?
• Triple Pundit – Top 10 Reflections from a First Time TEDster: I love TED. I love watching the videos and presentations that are released. It’s helped me become a better communicator at school, in life, and in game. Given the chance between going to TED or Blizzcon, I’d probably pick TED by a narrow margin.