Angela Recommends

As a business owner and blogger, I know you will enjoy this guest post from Problogger.net by Blogging expert, Darren Rowse

Guest post by David Risley, of David Risley dot com.

What I’m about to share might be a little bit counter-intuitive for many, so I ask that you stick with me.

What if I were to tell you that blog posts really aren’t all that important?

OK, Mr. crazy man. Stop yanking my chain.

However, I’m quite serious and I’m saying this to you as a full-time, professional blogger who makes his living completely online.

The simple truth is this: Poor bloggers spend most of their time writing blog posts. PROBloggers spend most of their time on what actually matters – business.

Blogging Isn’t A Business

I’ve been quite direct about the fact that blogs are not businesses. I believe that so many bloggers get so hung up on their medium that they haven’t stepped back to look at the big picture. A blog is a promotional medium and a communications platform. And in order to really monetize a blog, you have to ask the question: To what end?

What is your real product? What is the thing that you can provide to others in exchange for some of their money?

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a teaser of a post from Problogger.net’s Darren Rowse that I thought you would enjoy if you use your blog to expand your business reach.

Click here: Problogger.net to read the entire article, where he gives you the 4 Elements. He does a great rundown of what each element entails.

Darren: At a recent book reading at SXSW I spoke briefly about a new chapter in the new ProBlogger book (due out next month) that is a case study of my main blog (4-5 bigger than ProBlogger) – Digital Photography School … I thought it might be a good idea to include a new chapter that examined how I’ve developed the blog so far.

The case study looks at 4 main aspects:

1. How I launched the blog: the 4 foundations that I build in years 1-2
2. How I built upon the foundations: what I focused upon in years 3-4
3. How I monetize the blog
4. The way I use email to drive traffic to and monetize the blog

I did monetize the site from day 1 and dPS was profitable from the first month or two – but it was not my main focus. Rather I focused upon the … 4 foundations and let the monetization grow naturally as traffic and reader engagement grew.

Read the rest here: Problogger.net

This was a guest post on Darren Rowse’s Problogger.com by Christine Pilkington, a digital media veteran who recently launched VancouverMom.ca, a hyper-local blog that shows Metro Vancouver moms the unique, intelligent and beautiful side of their city. Christine also can be found at GoGoMamaGo.com, a blog for mom entrepreneurs.

Eight weeks ago, I launched my second blogging venture VancouverMom.ca and I’m thrilled to say that the site’s initial performance is exceeding my expectations. I’m hitting my pageviews and unique visitors four months early! In my mind, I’m way ahead of schedule and breaking out the bubbly.

Now I know what you’re thinking: either you’re breaking out the bubbly with me or you’re a skeptic and think that I estimated badly. And my response to you is this: It doesn’t really matter. Not really – especially when you consider the more important step I took: I wrote it down.

As a web consultant, I’ve encountered many new web site owners, including bloggers, who were afraid of putting numbers down – fearful of guessing and being wrong. Sure they know what they should measure – pageviews, unique visits, RSS feed subscriptions or whatever – but oftentimes they’re paralyzed with the question: I can guess, but how do I know that my forecast is a good one?

The truth is – you don’t. Unless you have prior experience estimating pageviews or site visits, or know someone who has, your estimate will be a wild guess or just an educated guess at best. There are so many factors that make a new blog successful that in reality, even “experienced” experts are really just guessing.

I’m here to tell you that a wild guess is better than nothing at all. Here’s why:

You get sense of accomplishment

I love that I’m months ahead of schedule and I feel like I’m on track. When I wrote the numbers down, I was giving my absolute best guess at the time. I’m projecting advertising revenues from the site and wanted to know when I could reasonably expect to start selling ads. I admit:

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RATINGS: 10/10 EACH!

EASY RECORDING WITH NO EXTRA EQUIPMENT
AudioAcrobat.com is a fantastic resource and is only 19.95 a month if you use it right (making sure that when you post an audio it is only downloadable–this saves you enormous bandwidth charges). Included is the ability to post your audios and podcasts on iTunes for free, giving you millions of listeners who wouldn’t necessarily find you.

I do have a bridge line I use to record my teleclasses (more about that below), but I like AudioAcrobat.com for my interviews and my private sessions.

I also like it that you can use AudioAcrobat.com to record your other audios, podcasts and videocasts, and publish them to iTunes, too–you can’t do that on any of the free or for fee bridge lines.

THE BEST BRIDGE LINE, EVER
If you want a bridge line that is more than just talk…

Read the rest of this entry »

ARTICLE RATING 10/10
Written by ProBlogger.net Blogging Expert, by Darren Rowse. You can read the original post here.

Have you ever had a moment in your life where everything changed?

You might not have known it at the time–but the moment was defining, it changed the course of some area of your life in a way that turned things upside down.

I had one of those course changing moments early in my blogging. It was a moment that resulted in my blogging moving from being a hobby that generated a nice bit of secondary income into a full time business.

It was a moment that at the time didn’t feel life changing – but it was.

The funny thing about this moment is that Read the rest of this entry »

Are you this energized when you speak?
I know by now you’re familiar with the wonderful TED talks. I saw one yesterday that was so boring I was shocked that they allowed it on their site.

But then I saw this one, and all memories of the other one disappeared. I LOVED this one! This is the most fun scientist I’ve ever heard or seen! He has an absolutely beautiful ending to his speech.

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BOTCHED TICKET–this one had me rolling. How could anyone be…well, I suppose I could’ve done it, too, but still….

BOTCHED 911–is this how we’re being ‘protected’? Maybe the snoring will scare the intruders away….

BOTCHED WORKOUT–hmmm, maybe my head isn’t suppposed to end up between my legs….

BOTCHED ASS–nevermind them modern gadgets–what’d they call ‘em? Trucks?

BOTCHED CHAIR

BOTCHED HONK–this is hilarious! All little old ladies should be so nonchalant!

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THIS IS A TRAVESTY

Imagine what would happen if they took the money they use for these ‘cells’ and paid for rehab with an EFT expert, instead.

But I guess that isn’t the intent anymore, what with privatized prisons. Gotta make a profit, no? Isn’t there something rather sick about this? Humans in containers?!?

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SOUND CREATES FORM: Vibration see it and believe it.

In these pictures, what you see is sand particles being vibrated into designs by passing sound through the plates on which the sand lies.

In this video, you’ll see how they start out with a plain flat plate. They just pass the music through the plate. You can find more about this by googling Hans Jenny.

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A COLLECTION of GREAT ARTICLES FOR YOUR BUSINESS: How to find readers for your blog

These four articles were all at Problogger.com, a great source for succinct, very usable posts to help you in your blogging and business.

What we wish we knew…. He writes: “This post is part of the ‘What we wish we Knew’ Series. In this post are readers comments on the topic of finding readers for a blog as well as some of my own experiences and advice.

“We’ve talked about setting your blog up right (hosting, domains and platforms), making money from blogs and writing great content – but while all of these things are important to think through, they are somewhat useless unless you have readers stopping by to engage with your content.

“It’s no wonder then that the most common question I’m asked is ‘how do I find readers for my blog’.”

19 Strategies for finding readers. This one article, alone, is worth the four. Make sure you book mark it to go back to for future reminding.

What I’d do if I were starting out again. I wish I’d had this, too!

How to find readers: a collection of articles. This is a great resource–make sure you bookmark it.

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MERCURY-TAINTED FOOD–WHAT’S NEW?
Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streams

Los Angeles (Reuters) – Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday.

More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of people who eat average amounts of fish, the U.S. Geological Survey report said.

More than two-thirds exceeded the EPA-set level of concern for fish-eating mammals.

“This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds, and many of our fish in freshwater streams,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. The USGS is part of the Interior Department.

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WHERE DOES YOUR HEALTH-CARE MONEY GO?
700 dollars out of every program goes to health care execs? Oh me oh my. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if the money for health-care actually went to increase health–or is that the wrong conecpt….?

Now, this following set of ideas is good. Sensible, doable–but will it really happen? Pardon me while I doubt it. But maybe if we doubted less and shouted more….

A HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THAT MAKE SENSE–8 Clearly-Defined Ways to Improve Health-Care

“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone….” READ MORE HERE….

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GOT MERCURY?
This is a shocking video that shows the actual emanations of mercury from a tooth’s amalgam filling. Every time your filling is stimulated–grinding teeth at night, chewing food, chewing gum, getting your teeth drilled or cleaned–the emanations continue for an hou and a half. Tell me when your tongue does not rub up against your teeth. Hello? Do we really want this crud in our mouths???

WHY USE ZIRCONIA instead of titanium in implants? Implants and root canals are serious business–in more ways than one. The family dentist made lots of money off my teeth when I was a kid – 4 root canals and a ton of fillings. Later, a complete redo into gold. Now, 20 years later, I discover that even gold isn’t good. Where to go, what to do?

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ARTICLE RATING: 10/10

Written by Darren Rowse (In this post Dan Kaufman from BarZine.com.au shares some tips on writing Sharp Snappy Blog Posts.)

When you write a story you’re lucky if you can get a reader beyond the first paragraph. This is true in print and it’s even worse online (a recent study by Jacob Neilson at http://tinyurl.com/mubtmr makes for interesting reading). After all, your post is just one out of millions online – and the difference can lie in how well written your copy is.

Writing is a craft that involves a continual learning process.

Having been a journalist and editor for the past 15 years (and I’m now a blogger as well) I still find myself learning – but there are some hard and fast techniques to make your copy snappier and more engaging.

Here are some of the basics: Read the rest of this entry »