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Use Term Bloggeries and Win an Ipod Nano!

October 9, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Blogging

Hi Everyone,

I have a SIMPLE contest to enter where you can win an Ipod Nano for simply using the term bloggeries.

All you need to do is use the term “bloggeries” as a synonym for blog posts at one point from now until October 16th 2008 at 5PM EST.
Examples?

I was enjoying some of your bloggeries
I’m going to be up late; finishing some bloggeries for next week
I like your blog; particularly your bloggeries on ….
Click here for FULL Contest Details.
I hope everyone is doing well. With the uncertainty in the markets it’s a great time to be WORKING FOR YOURSELF. I hope many of you are doing well despite the economic situation.

All the best!

Rob

Making No Money? This Could Be Why!

May 26, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Business Advice

Not making much money online? Want to know why?

The reason is simple it’s because you’re lazy and running your blog like a hobby you’re sorta into. Imagine if you ran a business with the dedication you currently put towards your blog? Chances are it would fail to be profitable as well. Sound familiar?

I have a newsflash for myself and everyone. Blogging is citizen journalism. Whatever niche you’re in you’re competing with journalists. People who are really into the topic and gain satisfaction in releasing the latest and greatest news from the industry or writing in depth pieces on topics of interest to that niche. That’s where the money is at in blogging; being at the forefront of journalism online in your niche.

Why do you think so many Make Money Online blogs go nowhere?

A) because the author doesn’t make any money themselves

B) The author gets his / her “stories” from other larger popular blogs and regurgitates them

C) The author is quasi committed to the blog; the occasional update coming at varied times and nothing really written in an authoritative manner. (Do you write in that manner when you don’t know what you’re talking about?)

Next let’s talk about Social Media. I’m sick of hearing about how it improves traffic / this / that. Yeah it does to some extent but it’s ultimately just an ego booster. So many people so happy with Stumble Upon traffic or something similar. I’d go as far as to say I’ve never EVER had a conversion from Stumble Upon. Twitter has brought in some decent visitors but if you factor in the time I’ve spent on twitter the conversion rates would be one heck of a good laugh if that had been the intended purpose. I use twitter because I like it; if you’re going to signup only to drive traffic to your blog / site. Better ways to use your time.

Look at your activities online; are you working or just doing your “thing”. What’s “Your Thing” you may ask? Well for some it’s checking sports, stats from websites that have made no sales, scrolling through forum posts to find?? what is that we’re looking to find?, reading bloggeries and following the links from one site to another, starting an idea getting a roadblock or seeing something else that looks good and then going after that abandoning the first plan, find something else repeat.

I’d go as …

Twitter Replacing Traditional RSS Feeds?

May 22, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Blogging

This may seem kinda crazy but is twitter replacing traditional RSS feeds? Someone who subscribes to your RSS feed just subscribes to posts from a blog. Someone subscribing to your twitter feed is subscribing essentially to YOU. They want to hear what you have to say or at least they want to hear most of it.

With the advent of TwitterFeed you can have it set so that any blog post you make on any blog you own is automatically tweeted into twitter. You may have 50 subscribers on your humor blog, 230 on your business blog and 35 on your health blog. Traditionally you’d send that info to your subscribers and that’s it. Realistically if someone likes the way you handle and write things in one domain they could enjoy your work from others.

Imagine you had 2,000 twitter followers. Each time you make a post it’s sent to them. Sure it’s not in a feed reader but many with feed readers have them jammed with other feeds or don’t necessarily check them each day. Also people on twitter are a different breed to some extent. It’s people that are actively interacting, sharing etc… Also if someone likes your post they will most likely retweet it by sending it off to their followers list. Write something great and it can go viral really fast thanks to social media; twitter in particular.

I will say use twitterfeed cautiously and only if your blogs are somewhat related. If you make 5-10 posts a day on all your blogs it will look like link spamming ESPECIALLY if you aren’t active. If you make 70 tweets a day and 8 are links to your blog who cares. If you make 12 a day and it’s basically just links to your blog I don’t think you’ll retain your new friends very long. How would you like to basically just get a stream of links from someone? I wouldn’t.

If you want to send lot’s of links be smart about it. Send links that aren’t yours but of substantial value to anyone in the online world and of course mix some of yours in there. People aren’t stupid and your twitter friends are just that; people. Send them useful things and engage in conversations. If something you wrote is helpful than by all means send it; if not don’t bother.

Ultimately I see twitter as an …

Focus to Avoid Information Overload

April 14, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Business Advice

I believe the your success will be obtained to the degree you can focus on what’s important and implement the necessary steps to succeed. Why am I writing this on a Monday morning you ask? Simple reason is that online there is so much information that unless you focus and know what you want to do before you sit down you’ll just drift from one site to another. If you don’t focus your efforts you’ll definitely suffer from information overload which isn’t good for your psyche or productivity.

Since information is so readily available online today it’s almost become more of a curse then a blessing. Remember the days of going to a library finding 1 book on a subject; learning some presented facts then burying it to move on to other areas. Unfortunately the internet is like that which is it’s biggest pro and con. You will always find information that conflicts with other information you read previously. You will almost certainly find every conceivable opinion for every possible question. If you just follow opinion after opinion you will be in a massive circle of doubt and indecision.

To combat this “information overload” it’s important to try and find the best 2-3 sources for any topic then trust them. The majority of your time should be spent finding people worth putting your trust in then reading what they have to say. Cross reference their opinions with 2 other people who you’ve decided to trust through referencing their work etc. So instead of reading anything anywhere and searching for evidence to prove or disprove which is basically one big circle I’d recommend finding people you can trust and look for THEIR opinion when you need information on the matter.

This has come to me recently as I’m doing more and more research into search engine optimization and reading general internet blogs.  I’ve found myself wasting so much time and leaving with less a grasp of the concept then when I started.

Information overload is the new curse of the information age. Find your sources; trust your sources and implement because no one ever made a living flip flopping between ideas. Some will work some won’t but you’ll never make a dime unless you implement. Anything that can reduce indecision and increase implementation is a slice of alright on my dinner plate.