New Schedule
Harper's been running me ragged today. Today was the first day of our new schedule. Mom's starting a new job and is gone from about six in the morning till three. So now I got the kiddo all to myself all morning.

I'm not a morning person.

Well, ok, at least I'm not right now because I have been on a different schedule. I usually work through the night and mom would have him till about noon. Not anymore. Now I have to try to get to sleep earlier so that I can spend my morning putting the dvd's back on the shelf, the pots back in the cupboard, and well, change some not so fun diapers.

But it's fun. I just have to figure out how I'm going to get anything done now. I'll still have a few hours in the evening - and I hope that I can get some stuff done during the day. I'll just have to distract him at key moments with snacks. Those seem to work. Bright shiny objects aren't working so well anymore - guess he's past that stage.

If I can just work out 15 minutes here, and 15 minutes there I should be able to get a few little things done - a few quick articles hopefully. It's just so hard because I tend to want to pass out during those 15 minutes.

It was funny today because I couldn't get him to take a nap for the life of me. Eventually, finally, he simply spread out on the floor in the living room and feel asleep. So not wanting to pass up an opportunity for a nice nap, I passed out next to him on the floor.

Using links in your blog posts
How's that for a transition? Really smooth, eh? (eh? I've been talking to a Canadian friend a lot lately and I love to use eh, eh? He claims there's about a hundred ways to use eh. I've only found about 36 so far).

I've been thinking a lot about how I use links in this blog. You ever think about that? I mean really, links are like money in the blog world. People have contests and do all sorts of things to procure valuable links. So if you have a blog - it's like being able to print money. Ok, not really. Because really, I guess you're links heading out of your blog are only as valuable as the links you have coming in.

Link to the big boys
Why? I used to have some links to the big ones - you know, problogger, john chow, etc...I mean really, what's the point? You're readers probably know how to get there. In fact, they've probably been reading them just as long as you have. So really, what's the point of having that link - I used to tell myself that it was so I could just click on it when I wanted to read there stuff. Yeah, I have them in my bloglines - do I need a link too? No.

Link to your peers
So if links are so valuable, who are they most valuable to? Blogs like your own. Blogs that are about the same size, slightly bigger, slightly smaller. That's where your real traffic is going to come from, and that's who is going to love seeing that you linked to them. Trust me. I know everybody that has a link to me. It's not hard - it's not a huge list yet. It's growing, but that's because I've been nurturing those relationships. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. That's the idea right?

I could link to John Chow, is he going to link back to me? Probably not. Yet. That's because everybody that has a blog links to John. He doesn't have to link back to me. But that's ok. It's not going to make me angry. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

But what's really nice is when you've written a post and linked to somebody and a few days later they link back to you in one of their's. That's what this all about. That's what you should strive for. Those are the links that are going to be the most valuable to you in the long run. It takes some time - you're not going to blow up over night, but if you grow a little every week, you'll get there in good time.


Technorati Tags: making money online, harper, links, blogging

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These days it seems that everybody is running a contest on their blog. It's an interesting tactic to market your site. Everyday, in my BlogLines it seems I read about 3 or 4 new contests from blogs I haven't seen. I imagine a properly done contest could boost a sites traffic and rss subscribers greatly if done right.

What do you need to run a successful contest?
Well, blogging basics like good content and well, good content are important. Because let's face it - the purpose of a blog contest is not only to increase traffic and gain exposure for your blog by generating a lot of reviews/links/comments, but to maintain the traffic and readers after the contest is over. You want people to come back and the only way to do that is to simply provide them with information and ideas that they can use. It would suck to get a bunch of traffic during your contest period and then lose it all after the contest ends because you have nothing left to offer. If that were to happen you might need to bribe your readers some more with a new contest.

A nice prize doesn't hurt either.
Different prizes are going to appeal to different people. Some blogs give away links or reviews, some give away iPods. There are books and dvd's to be had, sometimes even cash. Contest Blogger (the blog about you guessed it: contests) is even giving away an autographed copy of Virgin Comics trade paperpack "The Sadhu."



Technorati Tags: blogging, contests

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I got my Yahoo hearts rating over 1800. Yippee.

That being the big news for me right now - here's some stuff I've been reading.

• My Debt Free Goal. Amy's post talks about taking small steps to build up your passive income. Rather than worry about how you're going to make that next (first) million, think about how you can increase your passive income $10 a day - you'd be surprised where that will get you.


• 5 Reasons To Send A-List Bloggers To The Coal Mines! Kumiko makes fun of the recent pro-blogger articles boo-hooing about how hard it is to sit on their butts all day and make a living blogging. Too funny.


• Am I The Only One Who Named a Child This Way? Evil Mr. Chow talks about his method of baby naming - which as you might guess involves domain names.


• ProBlogger Redesign - Darren has given his site a new look and logo. I spent a lot of time checking out the new design and reading some articles in the archives. Good stuff.

• How2Blogger - A new blog with some helpful how to articles.

• Vegas24Seven - All the news and events of Las Vegas.
  

Hopefully all of this stuff will inspire you to be more productive than I've been. Some real good stuff on all of those sites.



Technorati Tags: links, blogging, 100 in 100

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You have to be proactive if you want to blog.

It's always important to know where your readers are coming from. It's important to know what they're clicking on. It's also important that you don't spend too much time trying to figure it all out.

I'm really bad about this. I love watching my traffic stats. I like making a post someplace else and watching what kind of traffic it generates. In elementary school did you ever release groups of balloons with your class's information to see who would find the note attached to the balloon and contact you?

Or - when you were a kid did you ever send signals up into the night sky with a flashlight in case aliens might pick up your signal?

I'm still waiting for a response on that one.

I always wonder if I'm just waving a flashlight around in the sky when I'm blogging.

That's why when you look at your stats, you'll be able to see what is actually having an effect, and this is good because you can do more of that.

Make sure you know what activities are directing traffic to your site. Is it the comments you left on a fellow blogger's blog? Is it the link in the sidebar that you exchanged for? Is it an article you wrote that had a link back to you?

I also like to know which links are being clicked. Do you know which is your most popular? Out of every link I have, text or image, this is my most popular, it's one of my referral links - though lately I've had it linking to one of my reviews:



Technorati Tags: blogging, making money online, cashcrate, cash crate, gpt, pay to read, traffic, 100 in 100

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If you're anything like me, when you start a new project you like to dive in head first. I go all out. I try to find out as much as I can about my new project. I immerse myself in it. That's been no different with this year's 30 Day Challenge. I'm at full speed ahead.

But now it's time to come up for a breath of air. My head is full of niche markets. Niche this, niche that. I need a few hours to regroup. That's ok though, because you'll find moments spent regrouping often lead to moments of clarity when you dive back in.

Today in my blog reader I noticed multiple posts across a few different blogs on the subject of writing a blog. My bovine friends over at John Cow had a rather a nice lengthy list of tips which included:

16. Write about many different topics while still remaining at least somewhat relevant to your industry. The more you talk about, the less likely your readers are to become bored with your blog.

I like that one. It's easy to get stuck writing about the same thing. Over and over. And over. Obviously try not to go from a post about Sausage Making to Underwater Kickboxing (examples Ed likes apparently), but try to vary things up a bit.

Try to think of your blog as your own personal magazine. You're the Editor in Chief - which means you can publish whatever you want, but remember, you still have to create interest in your readers. Change it up. Post a video about sausage making. Write an article about good Vermont Sausage. Make a list of the best sausage restaurants east of the Mississippi.

A lot of times I'll write a post and then become unsure of whether or not I want to post it. If you are overly critical of yourself, you might do this a lot. But remember, this can bring your blog to a grinding halt. Soon, nothing you write will be good enough to publish. When I'm not sure about a post, I'll save it as a draft. Then - I'll immediately write another post and post it. After one day, I'll come back to the saved post. If I've changed my mind and am ready to post it - I'll post it. If I've decided not to post it for whatever reason - I'll delete it. If I'm still unsure - I post it. Some of my most popular posts are posts that I wasn't sure of at first.

Another aspect of running a successful magazine is handling advertising space. We've all read posts about monetizing your blog and all that good stuff.

But don't forget this: the most important advertising space on your blog are the posts themselves. They are what drive traffic to your site, they are the things that are front and center - what people read first. If I write a number of posts in a day, I'll often find myself trying to space those posts out - because I want to give each post plenty of time at the top and center.

If you have a new blog - remember that controlling your front piece is super important, because a lot of readers are going to be seeing your blog for the first time. First impressions count, so make sure what you have up is what you want them to see when they first get there. On the other hand - I often find this is a great motivator to write more posts, because if I think that my current post is simply average, I want to replace it with something better - which forces me to constantly write to improve that center space.

Further resources about 'writing a blog:'

Angel writes on everybody's favorite subject: Punctuation and Grammar!
Darren has compiled a list of "How to Blog Better" Articles




Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, writing, 30 day challenge

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