Gather Success

Today is a holiday here in Canada – Victoria Day.  Funny thing.  Every day of the weekend they have been predicting rain.  Every day of the weekend, the morning overcast turned to sunny.  Today appears to be a repeat!

What are some of the outstanding moments in my blog life this past week?

Well for one thing, the blog life has had to make way for a non- blog life and that may be the case for the next few months but it is all good.   To maximize my efforts and put some efficiencies into play I have made the following decisions regarding my Blog Income Life:

• Focus on the “income” in Blog Income Life.  To that point I will be looking at my aggregate internet marketing income as my Blog Income Life.   I am giving myself the balance of Q2 and all of Q3 to ramp this up.  My first report will be published in October. 

 

•  As the focus shifts to income, I have decided to concentrate on affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing has paid me in dribs and drabs, but nothing sustainable and no plan in place for sustained results.  I am currently looking at all the programs that I am affiliated with a view to begin to marketing  them – beginning with one.  Reviews on these programs will be posted here.  In the meantime, any advertising banners on Blog Income are those of products that I personally have bought and am pleased with … I know, none here right now, but there are quite a number and I’ll put them up soon.

There is plenty more on the horizon which I will share with you as time, plans and results unfold.  I am excited.

Now for the week that was – summary of new posts since May 16:

Gather  Success Challenge III – Affiliate Marketing :
As a contestant of Alvin Phang’s Gather Success Blogger Reality Show I “attend” the weekly call-in and take notes to both apply to my own efforts and to post here so that you can take away a gem or two that  may be helpful  too.  Lots of gems on this call.  Read them here.

sidenote:  this is the call-in that made the penny drop for me re affiliate marketing and earning a sustainable online income.

Gather Success Challenge IV – Retweet Challenge
My bête noir!  For some reason I have been dragging my feet when it comes to social media, particularly when it comes to Twitter.  Alvin  makes it clear:  we need to become more familiar with Mr. Twitter!   This week I have been reluctantly visiting Twitter and making a few tweets here and there (not enough I am sure to garner me in the top three, but ok, it’s dipping my toes.  This post is all about me being a shameless hussy and “chirping” for RTs … that would be “retweets!”  (I think).  

Sunday Morn Musings: Learning to Dance in the Rain
A very short post – I give deference to the video, which is (I think) profound.  I couldn’t say it better.  Enjoy the video!

So what happened in April?

1. Don’t know.  April is a total stalemate.  Granted, the time devoted to Blog Income has been scaled back.  What this means is that the automatic growth engine needs a lot of stoking yet cause it certainly isn’t steaming on its own energy.

2.  Traffic via Twitter is now noticeable.  This is a mixed blessing as the bounce rate is now in the 70% range.  Gulp!

3.  Average time on page is 4.38 minutes – OK, those that stay read.  Thank you.

4. More and more pages are getting pushed up in rankings both on Google and Yahoo (I  don’t check the stats for the other search engines).  This is encouraging.

What’s up for May?

FUN.   Not just for May but for June and July as well … participating in Alvin Phang’s Super Blogger Reality Show.  We will be given tasks each Wednesday and have to report on results every Tuesday.  Results are then awarded points.  The higher the points, the further along towards winning the prize.  The challenge starts today.   The first set of tasks that need to be accomplished is to post daily on a blog of our choice.  I have decided to work on Blog Income as the blog of choice for the challenge.

SIMPLIFY.   I have way too many blogs that are just sitting around doing nothing.  Some of them have commercial value so they are going up on the auction block.  I can always expand again when the time is right.

COMMITMENT.  Playing 100% in the Super Blogger Reality Show.  I think it would be cool to win, but more importantly I will have to exercise discipline to keep up the pace.  That will do several things for me, not the least of which are:

a.  Increase speed of critical thinking

b.  Improve efficiencies

c.  Learn new things and implement

d. Focus

I look forward to swerving out of the stall and to reporting much better results for the month of May.

One:  The week was heavily scheduled outside of the home office — mostly business meetings.  In the winter I like hunkering down and working in my bunker, but come spring and the rest of the year it is nice to get out and about so the business meetings were welcome.

Two: It is time to simplify.  Taking stock of all the domains and sites that I own, I have decided that it is time to sell some of them off.   I signed up for Starting from Scratch which is all about flipping online real estate .   This week I took one of those sites, dusted it off and worked on making appropriate changes, applying stuff I learned here and within another week off to the auction block it goes.  It’s been refreshing to work in a niche that has been neglected for some time now.  Note to self:  don’t fall in love with it (again)?

Related post:  There’s Money In Them Thar Blogs

Three:  Have also been working on the new theme for this site.  Have taken an obscure domain that I own and am doing the dry run on it before taking the big leap (to which I will undoubtedly have to devote the better part of a weekend – oh please let it rain!)

These are the posts since the last Week That Was:

Wonder Wheel Great Tool for Cluster Blog Posting
At the regular Monday Night Internet Mastermind group we were introduced to Google’s Wonder Wheel.  It was presented as yet another useful tool to fine tune our keyword researching skills but I looked at it as a great tool for related topic clusters that will get the hay burning and the posts coming. … read the whole cluster

Sunday Morn Musings: Screw It, Let’s Do It!
I am a toastmaster. Recently I gave a speech and the opening line was “Screw It, Let’s Do It”. If you know anything about Toastmasters this would ordinarily be one of those out of bounds moments and I would have been cited for this sort of unacceptable language … but this is not milk toast club so that when I opened my speech with “Screw it, let’s do it” they thought that I was merely swearing!   What was it really about?  Does Richard Branson ring a bell?

Here’s to your awesome blog income life!

You know what was so good about it?  Yes, spending time with family and friends, but the truly surprising part was that it was really invigorating to get back on the computer and get moving again.  I got a surprising amount covered.  The brain seems to think faster and I think you waste less time, because, well there is so much to make up for.  I think I’ll do that more often.

I was intrigued that one of my posts this week was not only indexed , but actually got a Google Broad position of 98 and Phrase position of 48 – OVERNIGHT! I’ve never had anything like that happen.  The post in question is This Too Shall Pass.  I think it’s the video which I embedded into the post .  Now I don’t think that any video would garner that kind of attention, but this one is really tops.  You just gotta watch it.

Summaries of articles posted since the last review

Blogger Reality Show Challenge 05/04/10
The World’s 1st Reality Show For Bloggers To Challenge Each Other Each Week To Win The Ultimate Prize To Be Alvin Phang’s Apprentice!
Sooner or later it had to happen – a Blogger Reality Show and Alvin Phang of Gather Success is the man to have put it together.  Everyone can participate.  The show starts April 30 so hop on out on over there and register.  It will be fun.

What is your Blog’s USP? 06/04/10
Do you know what your blog’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is?  What sets your blog apart from the others.  Some things to consider and apply to your blog that will have your tribe growing and following you consistently.  Read the whole blog post

This Too Shall Pass – 09/04/10
This was my first attempt at embedding a You Tube video.  I think I missed a step or something as after you click on the video it asks you to click again … but the video is so hilarious.  You really do have to watch it.  I then drew some parallels from the video to blogging.

The gloves are off.  Two of my fave bloggers Dave and Pat  seem to be duking it out in the blogosphere  or so their posts seem to suggest.  They’re both sharp dudes though and even though the titles  seem to be at polar opposites,  there is some common ground there.  Definitely a must read.

Pat Flynn -  Its Dumb Not to Dumb it Down

Dave Doolin – “Dumb it down” they say… No! I say, “Smarten it up!”

I’m not going to even give a summary – honest, just go read both posts.

Tomorrow Sunday Morn Musings returns.  Adios!

As I was watching the video I could not help but draw parallels to blogging and internet marketing.   Lets take a look at what we can learn from this video:

1. UNIQUE

What first caught my attention is that this is a departure from your standard domino effect videos.  Clever as those are they are from today onwards – at least in my eyes -  just thematic variations on dominos falling in rapid succession.  In this video the dudes devised a clever use of mixed objects  to move inertia to action

How does this apply to blogging?

In yesterday’s post I talked about your blog’s USP and how  differentiating your blog from others was important.  In this video we see imagination taking over and the result is a uniquely creative domino effect.

2.  FIRST STEP

The simple act of pushing the truck sets off a succession of movements that impact some domino style blocks.  I like the use of these blocks as it tells us from the outset that this is another one of those domino wonder videos, then it changes tack as  a string is toggled, then a marble then a series of half pipes and the whole thing goes down a wild rabbit trail. It had me glued to my screen.   I watched it several times to see the point of connection at each new article in motion.

How does this apply to blogging?

The first physical step that a blogger takes is to buy a domain.  From there on the ball starts rolling.  In this video there were 89 mechanisms involved.  As you progress in your blog you learn how to optimize your keywords,  how to appeal to the search engines, to drive traffic, to develop a community, to attract stark raving fans, to have conversions.  Ultimately to make money.

3.  CONTENT

Did you notice that all the items are ordinary, every day things?  Same with what you write in your blog.  Unless you’re writing to a very small niche of rocket scientists – well, this is not rocket science.   Content for your blog is all around you.  Some seemingly  non related items can be worked into your post, no matter what your topic is.  Think about how strong March winds, or April flowers, or fashion shopping baskets might fit in to what you write about.  My friend Cheryll just started a site on her collapsible shopping baskets (its a work in progress just wanted to show you an example) … if yours is a greening the planet type of blog, would these not fit in nicely as a post.

Most importantly, keep it simple.

4.  ENGAGEMENT

Make it fun.  OK.  This is a tough one.  Not all of us are blessed with clever witticism, thigh slapping humour or the ability to string a bunch     of words in such a way that they will entertain your audience.  Ok … the least that you can do is lighten up – yes, I am working on it!

5.  LEVERAGE

Excellent example of the leverage of the power of kinetics.  How can you leverage your blog for traffic, conversions, links, list building,           making money

6. TENACITY

This took a lot of planning.  Do you think that it was perfect from the get go?  How many “takes” did it take?  It took months to perfect the concept and get this – there are 89 points of connection and it took 85 takes!  Aaah.  Tenacity, thy name is success!

If you get the time watch the other videos on the behind the scenes of the making of this video, do.  It is both inspirational and informative.  I was so taken by the video it took me a second or two to clue in to the fact that this was a band!  OK GO!  The creators?  Oh I dunno, gotta be engineers or just dudes with too much time on their hands and bent imaginations living in their heads!

BUT DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT?

Such was the case this week.  There are times when one is tried every which way.  I always tell people who are experiencing some really tough times that it means they are on the threshold of something big but to make sure that they are up to the big, the universe sends challenges.   We all get through challenges, life goes on, but it is how we deal with those challenges that determines whether we move up, stay static or slide backwards.

OK………….. I’m waiting for the big times to come!

Blog Income was down for almost two full days at the beginning of the week.  Incompatible plugins. Then Friday, once again while I was in the back office, I managed to shrink the site and the font size – if you scroll past to earlier posts you will see that the font size is small.  The good thing is I have found out how to increase the font size for each posting – now to just make it universal and widen the blog to it’s original size.

All this in the last week of Quarter One!   … so, better times ahead.

New posts since the last Week That Was:

Sunday Morn Musings:  Big is NOT Beautiful! 21/03/10
Social engineers are at it again.  As usual they employ semantics as their tool of choice and preach from the pulpit of political correctness.   They want us to think that “Big” is beautiful.  Read that as FAT is beautiful.  BALDERDASH!  … On my Sunday soapbox (maybe that is what I should call it)I take issue with fat and health.

Life, Timing & Love all live in The Land of Internet Marketing 24/03/10
… calm has returned to the domain of Blog Income and that makes life good but it’s been a few hair raising and tearing days.   At first annoyance, then disbelief, then as the reality began to seep in, utter panic.  An internet marketer’s nightmare

Wordpress Direct Review – 26/03/10
“No more wasting your precious time with setup, Search Engine Optimization, or maintaining your site . . . WordPressDirect has been designed to handle all the setup, SEO and maintenance functions for you. With over 15,000 users, we are the leader in Search-Optimized Blog Publishing.”

Now that’s some powerful statement and if true it is the best kept secret in the internet marketing world.  In this post I go over my experience along with some suggestions for improvement that WPD might want to take to heart.

Lean pickings this week.  With every challenge met new things are learned.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

“Let us do the heavy lifting for you!

No more wasting your precious time with setup, Search Engine Optimization, or maintaining your site . . . WordPressDirect has been designed to handle all the setup, SEO and maintenance functions for you. With over 15,000 users, we are the leader in Search-Optimized Blog Publishing.”

Now that’s some powerful statement and if true it is the best kept secret in the internet marketing world.

I was first introduced to Wordpress Direct (WPD) in the summer of 2009, August to be exact.  I was participating in Ed Dale’s annual 30 Day Challenge. The instructions were to use Wordpress Direct which was available for free for 30 day challengers for the 30 days.  After that pay or return to the regular Wordpress.

Of course I paid – moreover there was a special for members of the 30 Day Challenge (and my guess is that there will be one again this year).  I am so glad I did.  In October I transferred Blog Income from Blogger to Wordpress Direct.

Increasingly the internet marketing crowd is beating a path to the door of Wordpress, but Wordpress has a steep learning curve and for us non-techie types the upward curve is nosebleed high.

How does WPD  differ from Wordpress?  Well as their intro says, they do all the heavy lifting for you.  Lets take a look at their claims and see just how much lifting they do do.

#1.  Handle All The Setup

This is a biggie for me.  To give you a bit of a background:

In January 2009 I signed up for a course on niche marketing.  Included in the course were instructions on how to set up your own Wordpress site.   While the majority of the course was easy to understand, the Wordpress setup had it’s challenges.  I needed to install an FTP file and learn how to upload and download, c.panel navigation and php.  This may be simple once mastered but the exercise gave me nothing but grief and no results to boot.  The site languished.

I even downloaded several other tutorials on Wordpress.  Then it dawned on me that simple though it may be, it wasn’t simple enough as there were plenty of courses being offered at varying prices on how to set up your Wordpress.  WPD showed up at just the right time.

When you log into your Wordpress Direct Account the first thing you want to do is watch the video tutorials. There are two sets: the first three are on  Internet Basics and the second are a set of five on How it Works.    These are very easy to follow.  Each step is clearly illustrated.  There are no assumptions that the new member knows anything about internet marketing – they even take you through the initial stages of selecting a domain name, hosting and installing your first site.

I just reviewed these videos again to make sure that they are as newbie friendly as I remember.  They are.  For the veterans you can skip the Internet Basics videos (although you never know what new nugget you might pick up).  I just went through the second lot on How it Works and just realized that I am not taking full advantage of all that is available to me.

Installation once again is as easy as ABC.  It’s a series of point, click, select and fill in the blanks and voila!  You have a site up.  You are then taken through configuration and setup where needed and then you publish your first post.  You are also shown how to get into the Wordpress Admin area and how to navigate from there if you want.  So now you have all the bells and whistles of direct access to your site’s Wordpress administration area where you can choose to do most of your backend office type of stuff, or get most of that done through the simple  Wordpress Direct dashboard options.

So do they do the set it up for you?  My conclusion is that yes they do.  This gets a big “A+” from me.

#2.  Search Engine Optimization

When you are completing the setup of your site, you will be asked to include your keywords both long tail and short, a brief description and other bits that help to make your site search engine friendly.

What I really like about WPD is that all the themes come loaded with a pack of important plugins.  All you need to do is to activate them.  When I was setting up my site for that course I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there were only two plugins that were given.  Now plugins are important as they play a key role in the appearance of your site, ease of navigation, ad display, spam filtering, enabling comments and so much more.

As you cut your chops and become more experienced in the ways of Wordpress and internet marketing, you will want to add more plugins. Plugins are like an aftermarket product – think of all the toys and goodies that you can buy for your car.  A word of caution as I recently found out, make sure that you backup everything before installing a new plugin, not all of them play nicely with each other and you might end up with a blank page!  Trust me that is one experience you do not want.

So does Wordpress Direct deliver on Search Engine Optimization?  This is a toughie.  SEO is always a work in progress, but I give WPD two thumbs up for getting you started with a bagful of goodies that the average newbie knows nothing about and saves a ton of time for the advanced and professional internet marketers.  I can tell you that once I switched this Blog Income from Blogger the SEO bots were a lot happier with what they saw and within a short period of time the search engine traffic increased.

#3 Maintenance Functions

What I like is that not only can you automatically update your plugins, but you can also update to the latest Wordpress edition as it comes available without having to backup, uninstall, reinstall the newest edition and marry your site with the new Wordpress edition.   I notice though that WPD does not jump through hoops to support the latest edition as it comes out and that is probably a good thing as not everything when it’s first updated is free of bugs and with open source products such as Wordpress that may be a bigger issue than not.  For the tech proficient probably not a problem, for the rest of us update when WPD says so!

The deal breaker for me though is the support.  I was exchanging comments with another blogger who is a whiz on Wordpress and she wanted to know why I was using WPD, when I told her that they had real support, she was both surprised and impressed.  In my brief experience with Wordpress Direct (7 months) I cannot count the number of times I have had to submit a ticket because of zigging when I should have zagged.  Every issue was resolved – either I was advised on how to fix it, or, it was fixed for me.  Usually within two days.  There is a hierarchy if you will as to what and how much of your site they will support if the theme is “foreign” and this is clearly spelled out in the FAQ section.

So, Does Wordpress Direct deliver on maintenance and functionality?  Woohoo!  Do they ever!  High Fives all around.

Some Shortcomings:

I think they can do a better job of  themes.   They offer over 1500 themes and you would think that surely there is something there that will fit just about anyone.  But I find that the selection offered leaves something to be desired.

1.  The majority of the themes seem to be overly ornate.  Now I know that newbies tend to go for the flashy looking stuff, with lots of art, but once the first blush of blogging/internet marketing is off, we soon realize that simple is more.

2.  We want themes with shallow, that is short headers.  Some of the headers hog most of the space above the fold and we want to have that space not for the pretty pictures, but for our content to grab the visitor’s attention.

Having said that, I have manually installed themes directly from Wordpress to my roster of available themes that I can work with through my WPD account.  I also think that they miss the boat somewhat by not playing up that you can import your existing Wordpress accounts, theme and all and that there is all sorts of customization available for the advanced internet marketers. I know that this is a perception held by many professional internet marketers, that WPD limits your selection of themes and restricts access to and functionality within the admin area of Wordpress.

It would also be great to have some of the more popular themes included without having to manually import them, Atahualpa and Frugal come to mind.  I like these in their simplicity and flexibility when it comes to customization. DarkZen is another one I like.

Conclusion.

In my opinion Wordpress Direct is a must have for the newbie and professional alike.  It saves time for all.  With Wordpress Direct you have the advantage of a “done for you” setup without restricting you only to that which is included as part of the package.  Your site is powered by Wordpress and you have the added benefit of being able to work on your site via the Wordpress back office admin area simply by logging on as http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin and a responsive support team.

Would I recommend Wordpress Direct to everyone?  You bet!

P.S.   Disclaimer:  I have become an affiliate of  Wordpress Direct .  Should you open your account through my links and decide to become a paid customer, I will make a little bit of coin.

Mentioned earlier here Blog Income is scheduled to undergo a complete reno so I have been looking at several Wordpress theme templates to replace the current one.  Every time I visit a sight that appeals to me I scroll down to the bottom to see what the name of the theme is.  Following suggestions I have set the following as a starting point:

Simplicity – simple header,  customizable
Congruity – fonts, size, style etc visually appealing
Three column – content on  left, two side bars on the right

Atahualpa has been recommended by many and I must say that it seems to meet all the above and apparently very flexible/customizable.  The only thing is that most of the sites have the sidebars on both the left and the right.   I am sure that I saw at least one site that was on Atahualpa but the sidebars were both to the right…. ok, a little more work before putting on the switch (and maybe then I can put on the Ritz … it’s bad, I know )

Now for the week that was – new posts since the summary of last week:

Sunday Morn Musings: Designer Tomatoes  14/03/10
When shopping for fresh produce I stay away from the pure red, blemish free, perfectly round, still attached to its vine, tomato.  Instead, I carefully pick through the adjacent bin, the one with the imperfect tomatoes looking for perfect tomatoes.  I know.  That is a contradiction.   For the full article on why hop on over to Sunday Morn Musings

Romancing Alexa for Blog Supremacy 18/03/10
You may have noticed a new logo sporting a golden graphic of what I think is a chrysanthemum and the proclamation that this blog is a proud member of the Yakezei Challenge – it is not an affiliate banner.  Read the story behind it and how Alexa figures prominently behind it.

Quality vs Quantity? One Blogger’s Reply to Pat Flynn 19031
Whilst visiting Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income and posting a comment, my flying fingers accidentally hit the wrong key and just like that, the comment vanished!  I took that occasion to flesh it out further and wrote an whole post on whether quality or quantity of posts rule in the blogosphere … read the whole Quality vs Quantity post

… and that’s the way the week was!

Maybe it’s because here in Vancouver we are just waking up from our Olympic hangover – what a party that was!  The Paralympics have just begun, so we have another two weeks of fierce sports competition and guess what?  The weather has gotten colder, and the mountains are getting a fresh dusting of snow!

Now to the week that was.  A summary of the new posts since the last Week That Was:

Sunday Morn Musings:  Reading and Independent Thinking 07/03/10
Sunday readership of the “free-fall” no topic postings is increasing.  I thought when I first started the Sunday Morn Musings that mine would be the only eyes that would fall on the post.  I feel much better now.  Last Sunday’s discussion was on whether extensive reading inhibits or promotes independent thinking, the observation being that those who read a lot are reading others thoughts and so do not engage in much original thinking. Read the full article on reading and independent thinking.

Computer Backup Ensures Peace of Mind for Your Blog Income: 08/03/10
Backup everything that you have on your computer.  I speak from painful experience of not having done so and the panic that ensued when reboot after reboot failed one morning.  Some suggestions as to where you can backup all your data besides an external hard drive.

Five Steps To Keep Your Blog Income On Track – 10/03/10
The end of the first quarter of the year is fast approaching, are you on pace with your blog income goal for the year?  It’s not too late to take some aggressive steps and finish the quarter on the mark or at least much closer than if you don’t just continue doing what you are doing.   Five effective steps that take will have you earning your projected online income for the quarter and beyond.

Don’t Ignore the Fries 11/03/10
Two points running through the article – don’t give up the day job until your internet marketing business income replaces the 9-5 and, don’t ditch anything that contributes towards your expenses until you another product is a proven improvement over the item in question.  MacDonalds is know for reinventing itself but it doesn’t fool around with a proven profit item –  read about the fries and how it applies to your blog income

Come on back tomorrow for Sunday Morn Musings.

Yes.

Between Olympics, workshops and a computer that finally went to its final reward in the sky there was no “Week That Was” last weekend.

Got my new computer – a snazzy looking black lacquer Toshiba job with more space in it than I know what to do with. I could no longer defrag my dear old laptop because space available was below 15% – this one has 4 times as much space on the hard drive.  I know, over time that space will be filled too.  Oh nooo…. I will move lots of stuff for storage to a cloud, or buy an external hard drive. Or both.

Do you name your inanimate objects?  For example does your car have a name?  Mine doesn’t.  Several cars ago it did.  It was given a name by my daughter.  Her toys had names, she reasoned, so why wouldn’t a car.  Yes.  She still names her cars.

I name my computers.  Do you believe in the power of the word?  There has been a lot written about NLP (Nuero Linguistic Programming).  My dearly departed laptop had a name, I called it Big Money.  Perhaps my intentions weren’t clear.  The idea was that with the use of the laptop the Big Money truck would drive UP to my driveway but what happened was that it drove AWAY from my driveway.  I don’t regret it one bit though. The big money was spent on courses, so I chalk it up to education.  My brand spanking new laptop is named Money Magnet.  Do you think I did better this time?

So to the Weeks that Were – summary of posts published since my last weekly review.  If you haven’t read the post  in full these summaries give you a glimpse.  If one catches your attention hop on over and read the whole meal deal.   Comments are welcome and encouraged.

An Open Letter to Nathan Hangen – 22/02/10
I hang out at Nathan Hangen’s Blog.  I buy his products, the latest one being Beyond Blogging and am a great admirer of his but a recent post on his blog got my hackles up so I put on my boxing gloves and gave him the old one two in an open letter. He was OK with it.   To read what it was that got me in the ring with him and his reply, read the whole article which addresses blogging on blogging.

Blog Income To Go Under Knife – 23/02/10
At my regular   Monday night Internet Marketing Mastermind meeting, I had this blog critiqued.  There were lots of good suggestions.  The recurring theme of the comments suggested that it looked, well, a bit too cluttered.  I had already clued in to this and it was good to have my hunch confirmed.  Readers are encouraged to send in more suggestions.  Read the full Blog Income article.

Blog Income Month In Review: February 2010 01/03/10
Each month I review the results of this blog.  My current push is to increase traffic as I believe that all else will fall in from there.  Did I achieve my traffic goal for the month of February?  Yes.  Two valuable lessons learned which I think everyone can apply to their own blogging agenda.  For the full report just log on to Blog Income Month in Review

Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff
Spent two jam packed days learning about the basics of Social media at Matt Astifan’s Workshop.  We learned how to Twitter, all about Facebook and the importance of You Tube to internet marketing.  Am I an expert now?  Absolutely not.  Read about my experience and why I plan to play pretty with Twitter and other social media sites,

Is Centralizing Your Internet Marketing Services The Best Option?
When buying your services for your internet marketing business is it better to bundle and buy from a single provider or should you spread out and buy independently?  There are pros and cons for each.  Weigh in with your preference in the comments section.  Read full Centralizing Services article.

Alright!  We’re up to date!   Tomorrow: Sunday Morn Musings!