Writer's Land

No more ads

2009-06-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

I feel much better now. All the ads have been making the blog look messy. Now I'm ready to start getting back to blogging a bit, so hopefully I can find some time because the realms of Writer's Land are free from evil ads.

I miss blogging

2008-06-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've actively written anything so I thought I'd drop by and write a little note. I have a good reason for not being very active of late...three weeks ago I became a new dad. And since then my entire world has been about my daughter and of course making sure her mom is happy. ;)

So that's my life in a nutshell these days. I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Hopefully I'll find a way to make some time for writing.

Lets change the world of gaming

2008-03-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

There has been some talk going on recently that has been finding it's way to the media and as a past hard core gamer myself, I think it is a great idea.

Basically the concept is that games are going through a very difficult period of acceptance because they are called "games". This term literally causes a person to think of something "childish". How many guys have heard from their girlfriends something like, "I will never understand why you play these games. You're not a baby." or something to that effect?

Sure there was a time when you would never get away with anything other then the term video game. But in the past few years this industry has taken such a sharp upward curve in progression with realism, emersion, and the overall experience of the medium that not only does it do the industry an injustice to continue calling something so advanced in terms that lower it to the same level as a Barney sing along doll, it's also just simply not fair.

With that I would like to put my name down for the record as supporting this excellent idea of changing the verbal label of this industry's product. Lets stop calling them games, (unless you own a Wii :P), and call them Virtual Entertainment or Advanced Leisure Activity Programs, or something.

Lets change the industry and get people to realize that they aren't just games, they are a part of life.

Technorati Tags: Gaming, Console, Playstation, Sony, MMORPG

And the winner is...Blu-ray!

2008-02-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

This won't be long, just a quick post to gloat and say...I was right!!!
Toshiba drops HD-DVD support and we can all but say good bye to the present day betamax.

Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, PlayStation, Sony

Blu-ray FTW

2008-01-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

I don't really want to celebrate to early but lets face it, after last weeks announcement by Warner Bros to carry Blu-ray exclusively after May of 08, this brings exclusive Blu-ray companies to 5 vs. HD-DVD's 2 (which had to be bribed) ;), it's safe to say that I am about to become 2 for 2. Before the first PlayStation came out I said it would rule and I was right, and when HD-DVD decided to take on Blu-ray, I said Blu-ray will win and now it's looking that will happen. Predictions by some, estimate that HD-DVD will die a quick death this year.

My advice is to hold of on investing to much money on either until at least mid 2008, because by then it will be all but certain which way things are heading. I guess I'll finally be able to get Transformers on Blu-ray after all. Take that HD-DVD What?...It makes a great demo disk! :P

Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, PlayStation, Sony

Quote Of The Month - December

2007-12-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

"Relationships need to be built. They won't build themselves." -Genek

Technorati Tags: Quote Of The Month

National Novel Writing Month Comes to an End

2007-11-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

Well the day has finally come. Tonight at 11:59pm PST the word count validation tool closes and this years NaNoWriMo comes to an end. My word count widget is right above, see? I'm going to make a final push for the goal. I think I'll be able to do it. I wish everyone else trying to get those last few thousand words good luck!

I set the post time stamp to 11:59pm so that it will reflect my final word count at the right time.

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

Must Visit Blog

2007-11-30T15:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.gadgets-news.com/

There are many wonderful blogs out there, but sometimes one just really stands out and catches your attention. I am so excited about this blog that I just had to post a recommendation here. If you enjoy the gadgets, don't waste time and get your fill at Gadgets News.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets News

By the way for anyone wondering. This is not a get paid to post plug. This is my personal recommendation.

Lights of the Valley

2007-11-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

My friend just showed this to me and I thought I'd share it with everyone. It's specifically catered to the San Francisco, Bay Area, but anyone can see pictures of very cool lighting done around the Bay. Very cool idea IMO. People can submit houses they've seen and others can then go and visit them in person.

Lights of the Valley

Technorati Tags: Holiday, Celebrate, Christmas, XMas, New Years, Hanukkah

On vacation

2007-11-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I'm on vacation this week in Maui. It's so nice here. I'm
getting some really great photos. Ok, back to fun in the sun as they
say. :)
I wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Technorati Tags: Maui, Hawaii, Vacation, Photography, Holiday

NaNoWriMo Update

2007-11-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

17 days to go...
37,000 words remaining...
2176 words per day...

In theory...it can be done...

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

From Here to Fifty Thousand Validated

2007-11-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't resist commenting on this. At the expense of possibly loosing my modesty, I just had to share this. Oh what the heck, modesty shmodesty, this is validation. :P

NaNoWriMo sends out these emails called "A pep talk from Sue Grafton". Sue Grafton is a published writer of many books. Anyway, I was very pleasantly surprised when I read this email and it discussed just about all the tips I gave in my last "Writing Tips" post. I posted my tips before this email came so this is really exciting to me to see that a published author gave almost identical advice as me. I have to say it's very motivational.

The entire email follows.

By the way I try to limit moments of weakness and loss of modesty to no more then once per month. If I have another one of these before 12/1 please feel free to report me to the modesty enforcement agency.

************************************************
Hey, boys and girls!

This is Sue Grafton, just checking in to see how you're doing. I've been thinking about you often and I hope your work is going smoothly. In the event that it's not, I wanted to assure you that I get bogged down all the time. Someone asked me once if I ever got writer's block and I said, 'only once or twice a day.'

For reasons absolutely unknown to Science, many writers begin their novels with a burst of enthusiasm. There's a measurable outpouring of time and energy. I experience this myself. At the outset, my optimism rides high and my hopes are boundless. This book...this book, I say to myself...will be clever, inventive, fresh, original, witty, and profound. My characters will be complex, textured, and amazingly true to life. My prose will sing. The pacing will be relentless, yet the story will ebb and flow in a manner that will produce both thrilling surprises and quiet moments where the reader can reflect on what's gone before . My descriptive passages will be evocative, bringing scenes to life in a way that will later translate into a movie sale with all the attendant fame and glory and big bucks. (Personally, of course, I'd never sell my character to Hollywood, but you get the point...)

This hype, this glorious feeling of Omnipotence sometimes continues unabated until Chapter Two. By then, most puzzlingly, I might notice something is amiss. You may find yourself in a similar position at this point in the game. Whether you've written a thousand words or ten thousand, you may find yourself faltering. A little note of doubt may creep into your consciousness. This, I assure you, is not about the merit of the work you've done so far. It's an artifact of your own insecurities. You're probably beginning to wonder what your mother will think of those steamy sexual passages. Perhaps you're suddenly uncertain your immediate family will appreciate your rendition of their annual drunken Christmas antics that result in all those accusations, renunciations, and slamming of doors. You might suspect that your mate (and let's not even talk about your kids) might take a dim view of what's visible through the little window you've opened onto your soul.

This is my advice. Disregard the nagging voice piping up from the back of your brain. You aren't stupid. You won't fail. You won't humiliate yourself (that much) in front of all your family and friends. The important point is to keep up your momentum regardless of the fact that you might stumble now and then. Most people you know have never written a novel at all, let alone pounded one out in a jam-packed thirty days.

Look at it this way; you're not compelled to show your manuscript to anyone, right? In fact, I'd advise you do the opposite. Keep it under lock and key. Guard it with your life. This is your opportunity to express yourself, safe from the opinions of the dolts around you, who don't know ba d literature from good. If you're smart you've kept your mission a secret, but suppose you've already blabbed your goal to anyone who'd listen. What was the initial response? Did your loved ones and colleagues scoff or pretend to be supportive while making faces behind your back? Either way, if you bravely soldier on, you can make them eat their words. You can throw their skepticism back in their faces and laugh yourself silly that they had so little faith.

Believe me, getting from beginning to middle to end is an incredible accomplishment in itself! Literary quality is in the eye of the beholder and who's to say your novel won't be right up there among the greats? All you have to do is work. All you have to do is push. Focus on the job at hand. Ignore the urge to second-guess yourself. This is not the time for introspection; it's a time for charging on. Believe in yourself. Be determined to keep the promises you made when you first began. Your commitment to do th is will see you through, even over rough ground.

So. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and write. You said you would do this so nod your head and say, "I will do this. I will do this. I will do this." And then do this.

Sue Grafton

--
Sue is the author of the bestselling Alphabet Series, which began with 1983's A is for Alibi. The latest in the series, T is for Trespess, is due out in December. For more on Sue, visit www.suegrafton.com.
************************************************

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

Writing Tips - From Here to Fifty Thousand

2007-11-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

Even though I would love to say I'm a professional writer, I'm afraid a decade of writing stories doesn't quite get me there since I've never completed an entire novel before. So why should you put any credibility into what I say. Well you don't have to, but use your judgement and see if any of my tips can help you.

This year marks my first time participating in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you want to be technical 50,000 words is not true novel length, in fact it's slightly half of what is considered a novel. However, it's nothing to take lightly either. Anyone who has ever tried to write a story will tell you that even 1500 words can be difficult to write.

This is my tiny contribution to anyone looking for tips or ideas on getting that extra oomph to make November a 50k month. Boy will I be embarrassed if I don't get 50k. Hey that doesn't mean my tips are not good. I call this "From Here to Fifty Thousand".

The most interesting thing I've found with this undertaking is that no matter what you think your best genre is, you may end up writing something in a completely different arena. Seriously, I have never written anything other then fantasy, and the one or two times I tried, it didn't go more then 2000 words. Sometimes it just takes a good idea I suppose, which I kind of stumbled over a while back but never thought of it again until searching for a plot in October. It turns out that the genre, contrary to what I was certain of, ended up being adventure. Go figure, adventure...This brings me to the other very interesting discovery and that is, even though you may think you'll have absolutely nothing to write about, you will make a mistake if you don't try. In my first six days I have written 7200 words in a genre I never thought I'd write in, about a topic I never really gave much thought to.

So with that, here are my writing tips to be used as the foundation for any writing project.

Tip #1: Pen to paper so to speak and just start.
There is a very old teaching in martial arts, very commonly used in Jujitsu which in English is called "No Mind". Very basically this is the act of doing without thought or from second nature. Like when you have been driving a car for a long time, how often do you really think about pushing the break? Right you don't, it's just something that happens that we take for granted. I think writing is a perfect place to apply this. Our brains are very capable of unbelievable imagination, even though we grow up and forget what it's like to be a kid, or brains still keep that part alive somewhere and all you need is to tap into this resource of creativity. I actually came to this conclusion from my own experience. I used to go for months between writing sessions thinking that I can only write when I feel inspired. Well this truly limited my output and ability to finish anything. I also knew that if I were to use this approach for November I would never in a million years achieve 50k words by the end of the month. So I forced myself to just sit down in front of my computer and let the words flow. The first 2 or 3 days were not easy as I found myself wanting to analyze things to much which created to much time for me to second guess myself and wonder if what I'm doing is good or not. By the 4th day however, I found that most of my time I just went with the flow. The biggest thing for me has become typing those first few words. On a couple occasions I struggled with a choice of topics, I didn't know which direction I wanted to go in. I spent at least 30 minutes debating in my head the possible outcomes of each direction. I found myself getting nowhere and falling into that trap of over analyzing. When I reached this point I realized that I will be stuck if I don't decide, so I picked the one that I slightly favored over the other and it took me about 4 hours to write that scene over 2 evenings. Who knew?! In the rare instance that you can truly say you are 50/50 on topics and don't favor one over another, that's OK, just flip a coin write a few words and before you know it you'll have a chapter. No mind, let the words flow naturally.

Tip #2: Don't worry to much about structure of your writing.
At this point your primary objective is to reach 50k words, not to write a best seller. If you stagnate to much over format and grammar you'll find yourself doing just that 44k words short of 50k on November 26th. Obvious stuff is OK, but don't get obsessed with perfection. Remember one of the biggest rules of being an artist. The artist is always right! ;) Or otherwise known as "artistic license".

Tip #3: To share or not to share.
This was one that came out of a personal direction I took with my writing. I was very happy with this one actually. The idea is that I don't want to take any chances that someone may say something that will discourage me. You can call me insecure, but I call me on a good start towards 50k and no desire to kill my story or start a new one. Ironically, I am almost at a point that I am just about ready to start sharing. I can actually feel a difference in my attitude towards this story. It's not that I'm full of myself and think I'm the next New York Best Seller list candidate, but I'm just feeling very comfortable with how my book is progressing and becoming less worried about someones opinion impacting my writing negatively. I did say I'm almost there...right?

Tip #4: Chapter outline
If you are so in touch with your story that you can foresee the chapters, by all means write them out. It will definitely help. Sometimes all you need is a chapter name to ignite a spark and write pages and pages. I personally am not using this approach even though I wanted to. I'm really not sure where I'm headed. It's like I'm on a ride that hasn't been built yet and the track is just falling into place right before me. Still if you have details you are aware of that will take place in your story definitely make some kind of outline because you don't want to burden your mind with information that can be stored and referenced later. Let your mind concentrate on the bigger picture.

Tip #5: Who?
This one is actually not unlike tip #4. Unless you have only one character to keep track of it can become a daunting task to keep up with everyone in your story. I personally use a spreadsheet to keep track of the characters and little notes about each to help me remember what their role is in the big picture. Even if you only have two characters, it still couldn't hurt to note down various changes in their lives that can easily be referenced when needed in later chapters. So don't let your characters control you, keep track and keep everyone in order.

Well that's it for now and remember the biggest and most important tip is to believe in yourself and you will get From Here to Fifty Thousand.

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

Quote Of The Month - November

2007-11-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well technically this probably isn't a quote, but I just came up with this while in a sarcastic mood and thought I'd start running my quote of the month again. Actually first time here, I ran it before on my old blog.

Today is my own personal quote, slash, this is how I feel today about my job. :P

For the sake of being a PM and cultivating a motivational atmosphere, I'll refrain from any colorful commentary regarding my thoughts to this entire thing of progress. -Genek

Technorati Tags: Quote Of The Month

National Novel Writing Month

2007-11-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty jazzed. I've gotten up to 5141 words and what at first seemed may not go anywhere seems to be getting a life of it's own. Still, there is a long way to go and anything can happen. I shall press on and keep that goal in front of me.

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

National Novel Writing Month

2007-11-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well I've went and done it, I've started on my 50,000 words and I have 48,778 to go. I don't know how this will go down since I chose to write about something that is totally not in my usual genre or style. What makes it even better is that I've already lost 2 writing days. Well you never know, it might just flow and I'll have this done before the month is up. I want to wait until I'm well into it before I start sharing excerpts. This way if it sucks, I won't be discouraged or try to start over. This is about getting 50k words by end of November. If I get a good novel out of it, well all the better. Good luck to everyone who's participating!

By the way Blogcatalog.com has a writing forum with NaNoWriMo threads, so drop by for that extra motivational boost or just some book writing conversation.
Writers-and-Writing

Technorati Tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, Literature, Novel, Gaming, Console, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T12:41:00.001-07:00

I wish everyone a fun and safe Halloween.

Technorati Tags: Holiday, Celebrate, Halloween, Trick or Treat

Gaming and TV Coincidence?

2007-10-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Some will probably say this is no coincidence, others will say it is. The 11/02/07 Stargate Atlantis episode will be titled Tabula Rasa, which ironically enough is the same exact name of the new game by Richard Garriott at NCSoft. At face value it's very easy to say no way, this is for sure a coincidence, how in the world can you pinpoint the exact release date for a huge development project? Fine, I'll give you that, but before you make you final decision lets look at the facts. Roughly 1 month ago just before the original release date NCSoft announced a 1 month delay to allow for some additional patching prior to release. OK so while it could be virtually impossible to pinpoint a release date to coincide with a TV series episode during a massive dev project, it certainly doesn't take a quantitative mathematician to be able to say hey 1 more month guys and we can get some free publicity if we piggy back off that episode with the same name.

Then again...who cares? It's a great show, it's a great game, I myself think it's pretty cool.

Technorati Tags: Tabula Rasa, Stargate Atlantis, MMORPG, Gaming, Television

How To Build Site Traffic: Part 3

2007-10-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

So I got all my services registered, configured and installed on my blog. I have material, I have things I want to write about, but I need people to visit my blog so that I can share my thoughts, or what have you. Well I found a really great community that has helped me grow my traffic.

Blogcatalog.com has an amazing community of people who are all there for a common purpose to make friends and help each other grow. It's not necessary but when you sign up you can donate money to support the community. This will help get front page visibility for your blog. I paid but found a tiny caveat that isn't made very clear when registering. You donate to support a category and if you do this you will be listed in the top 5 results for that category. Initially they also give you a 7 day premium membership which gives you that front page visibility. After 7 days you get a message that this will expire so it kind of looks like your 1 month fee expires after 1 week. But that's not the case. So far I have not paid to get an actual premium membership, I want to see if there is a major difference between having it and not. The ads that I see now are no big deal, but it does seem like my site traffic has decreased.

More important then this visibility is your participation in the community. I immediately started going through various discussions and posting anywhere I can contribute as well as shamelessly posting to threads requesting for blog URLs. My traffic jumped very quickly as my activity on discussions increased. This past week I have been a lot more busy with work and personal stuff so my participation level went down and almost in direct correlation so did my site traffic.

Make sure to join as many traffic building discussions as possible. There are plenty of link exchange threads. There is a really good Technorati fave exchange discussion. The time it takes to go and add everyone on the list to your Technorati favorite is worth the number of people that will return the fave. Plus you are helping the community grow. Don't be afraid to start your own discussions because this will get you even more visibility.

I think this pretty much sums up the major pieces of steps to take towards building site traffic. Keep in mind I am writing in relation to my own experience and this does not mean yours will be identical. If you have more time to dedicate to participation in discussions you may get much more traffic then I did in the first 2 weeks. Plus with additional time you can sign up for various communities.

I wish you the best of luck with your blogging. I will be sure to post anything that helps me improve my traffic. If anyone else has suggestions or comments please reply and share your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: How To Build Site Traffic, Visitors, Blogcatalog, Discussion, Technorati

How To Build Site Traffic: Part 2

2007-10-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

At the risk of sounding cliche, you don't want your blog to be that tree in the forest that falls but there is no one to hear it. Unfortunately for the trees that's not possible, but fortunate for us bloggers there are ways of accomplishing this and that is exactly what you need to do before you start yelling to the world to grab their favorite beverage and read what you have to say.

Once again as with just about any service available there are probably a million options to choose from. I'm going to mention the ones that I chose and over time I will revisit this How to to update on my progress, talk about what works, what doesn't and hopefully I'll be able to help someone achieve what they want by learning from my successes and failures in building site traffic.

I know I've mentioned this already but I can't stress enough how important it is that first and foremost you are blogging for the love of blogging. You may have a chance to build something with a million hits a month, who knows. One thing is for certain however, if you have no desire to contribute something that comes from you personally you probably have about a zero percent chance of getting any traffic.

Alright, as I did research on this topic there were a few services that seemed to come up regularly and look to be common among bloggers. The very first two I signed up with were Alexa and Technorati. Technically you don't sign-up with Alexa, you install their browser toolbar. The toolbar sends statistics back to Alexa where a rating is given, the lower the number the better. When someone visits a site and has this toolbar installed it automatically sends data about that site. So the first thing you do after installing the toolbar is visit your own blog so that Alexa gets a record of your URL and starts collecting statistics. At this point you are well on your way to making sure visits to your blog do not go unnoticed. On a side note I thought I'd mention when you install their toolbar for some reason it pops up as a virus and you get a message to take action from your AV software. Usually I would stop at this point, but it's a well known service and I was not afraid to click ignore and let it install. If anyone has experienced any virus or spy-ware type activity after installing please comment so that others will be aware of what to look for. So far I have not had any problems. Technorati is basically a place for your blog "favorites". However the true power of this service is giving the members the ability to help each other increase traffic. To be perfectly honest I still don't know the full capability or use of Technorati so my explanation is definitely not an end all, just a guide. Once registered go to the link to claim your blog(s) and make sure to initiate a ping, which will force Technorati to notice your site. Even if your blog sends pings automatically I think the first time it's a good idea to do this. These are the two that I signed up with. I will probably sign up with more, but at this point things have already started getting pretty busy and unless you have hours of free time it can become difficult to keep up with and manage all these services. So I decided to take it slow because I don't want to overwhelm myself to the point of feeling like I want to just give it up. Blogging should be an enjoyable experience.

Now that we have some services setup it's not a bad idea to add their widgets to your blog. If you are new to blogging and don't know what a widget is just take a quick look around my blog. The various lists, ads, banners are all widgets. Small applications that are designed to perform a specific task. You can probably find a widget that does just about anything, short of cooking dinner, just about anything. For now we are only interested in installing widgets for said services above. Remember don't overwhelm yourself, there are limitless resources out there and if you don't follow some laid out plan our check list and start jumping all over the place you can get spread so thin that it will be hard to keep track.

Alexa has a widget that will show your site rank. One thing that I learned when I started using Alexa is that sometimes your URL can get rolled up under another. Usually this happens with sub-domains, such as Blogger.com where Blogger is the primary domain and your blog, in my case, writersland.blogspot.com is a sub-domain. In which case your rank will show the rank of Blogger.com. This is normal with sites that are new and have not had enough traffic. However, there is a support contact form on their website, if this happens drop them a note. When they respond they will most likely tell you what I just mentioned, which is what they told me. But it doesn't hurt to bring it to their attention just in case. By the way after 1 week and a few hundred hits to my blog, it suddenly became it's own "entity" and started collecting it's own stats. Which I have to say felt really good, like I actually accomplished something...even though my rank is like 10 million and change, it still felt good to see my hard work bring some return. This also tells me that my blog content is probably interesting to someone out there which also makes me happy because like most of you, I enjoy to share my thoughts with others. Oh I did forget to mention something. In Part 1 I mentioned making sure the blog service allows the user to have more control. Well one of the biggest things that got me to finally go with Blogger.com is the ability to add endless HTML widgets. This gives me almost limitless control to what content I want to show on my blog. Blog services that don't have this functionality will usually have a built in feature that will import your widget from some of the top services, but you are forced to only use those. Once again, it hasn't even been a week, and a little feature that may go unnoticed by some is a really huge factor in how you build your blog. It's also not a bad idea to promote the Alexa download link somewhere on your blog. Every person with that toolbar visiting is a count towards improving your score.

With the Technorati service the widget takes on a new role. It becomes more interactive in the sense that it allows people to add your blog to their favorites and looks like this and when someone clicks this button they will be able to fave your blog. Good rule of thumb is to always fave others especially if you like what you read and check who has favored you so that you can return the fave. By the way the button here is setup to add my blog as a fave, when you are registered you can get one tailored to your blog as well as any other widget they have.

Another thing I'd like to mention is search engines and statistics. Search engines such as Google will not necessarily recognize your site just because it's there. A good starting place is Dmoz.org. Basically you go to that site, drill down the category that best fits your blog and click the link at the top of the page to suggest a URL. Here you'll be able to register your blog URL. Try to find a category that is as specific as possible to your content and not generalized which will help you get a better listing instead of being lost in a sea of URLs. The nice thing about Dmoz.org is once they enter your site into their database it will automatically be submitted to all the big search engines and many others as well. This can take a while so don't be discouraged if even after a month your site is not showing up on Google. Go to this link to read about the submission process and instructions.

Finally it doesn't hurt and can even be very helpful to register with one or more statistic services that keep track of visitors to your site. Two popular services that I noticed are Google Analytics and StatCounter. Many people seem to sign-up for both and really there is probably nothing wrong with signing up for as many as you want, just keep in mind the law of diminishing returns which basically says there is such a thing as to much before the value you receive is less then your investment, in this case time put in to manage all these services. Lets face it, so far I've only listed a handful of services and already it will take some time to get everything configured just right, and setup on your blog. But you can't just leave it at that, you need to monitor these things, make adjustments where necessary and so on and we're still not done there are more things to see and do. I'm saying this not to bring you down, I just want to give you the realistic view of what it means to run a blog which again is why it's a good thing if you're here for the love of blogging, because these tasks actually become fun. So cheer up and keep at it. Hard work rarely goes unrewarded, even if it's a personal satisfaction you get from what you are doing.

And our check list grows:

Install Alexa toolbar and visit your own blog to register it
Register on Technorati, claim and ping your blog(s)
Register with any other services you like or find relevant to you
Install widgets on your blog for registered services
Register on Dmoz.org (http://www.dmoz.org/add.html)
Register with one or more statistic tracking services
Have fun!

Don't be afraid to sign up with newer or yet unknown services. You never know what they will turn into. At first your ranking with whichever services you choose will seems so out of this world that you may feel like you'll never be seen. But don't worry, keep posting and writing about whatever your passion is and with some time and patience you will see that number improve.

In part 3 I'll describe what I did to get my URL out there and list some more services that help with doing that.

Technorati Tags: How To Build Site Traffic, Visitors, Blogcatalog, Discussion, Technorati

How To Build Site Traffic: Part 1

2007-10-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to assume that you either already have a blog or are about to set one up. There are to many blog service options out there to list, but if you want to name a few that are common then it narrows the list, and chances are you are going with one of those in the top 10 or so. I won't go into details of how to find a service and establish your blog since that really isn't the goal of this how to. But I do think it's important to note that it's important to make sure the service you use gives you enough freedom with how you interact with your blog so that you are not constrained to using specific formatting and modules. Example would be how Blogger.com allows you to insert as many HTML modules as you want. Where as Windows Live Spaces only allows 1, 2 with a hack and then it's a journey just to get that to work smoothly, on the other hand Spaces has some very cool features. Another very important thing to note is you should have the ability to modify the blog template HTML. This comes in handy when you need to insert code for services that will pay you for posting ads, not to mention allows you to get really creative with your blog look and feel if you are so inclined to do so.

Assuming everything is in place and you've already started posting. The reason you started the blog in the first place is to post...something...if you thought you would start a blog and get paid for it without ever writing anything, then this isn't for you. The first and foremost reason to start a blog is to have a place to share your thoughts as well as make friends. Getting paid to blog is a very nice bonus, but you can't get to that point without being serious about blogging.

Ok that said if you are interested in getting paid to blog then besides having good writing skills, the other very important factor, and maybe even more important then good writing skills is to have site traffic. The more traffic the better. Because more traffic on your site equals more possibility for people to read ads, more possibilities for click throughs which equals to more companies paying you to blog and at some point who knows, paying you a lot to blog about their product.

Well this all sounds exciting but nobody knows I exist! Well that's where being an extrovert comes in handy. Online, even introverts find it easier to express themselves. This then leads us to my next topic...site visibility.

By the way if you are planning to have ads on your site and try to get paid to blog, one of the first things you should do is register with one or more pay to blog companies. The reason for this is because some may require a minimum up time for your blog before you are accepted, while others will accept you over night. However unless you already have an established site with good traffic chances are very good that you won't get any requests to post ads anyway. I personally signed up with Payperpost.com and Bloggerwave.com, I have their links at the end of this post in case you feel like giving me a click through. ;) You should also sign up for a Google AdSense account.

The last thing I'd like to mention for Part 1 that should be done before going out and getting visibility is to go and register at Feedburner.com or any service of your choice that will take your blog and turn it into an RSS feed and make sure that your blog has the feed option enabled and is set to send pings. Some blog services do not update Feedburner.com, but they have a URL you can put into your template HTML that will send pings. See, already this feature has come in handy! :) Feedburner also has some very cool features that can help you improve your site visibility. It's fairly intuitive so just go through the various options, see what they do and configure the ones you want to use.

So far we have:

Blog should be feature rich and give user more control
Blog should allow modifications to it's base template HTML
Decide if blogging just to blog, or want to also get paid for it.
Sign up with pay to blog services
Sign up with Google AdSense
Burn your blog at Feedburner

That's a lot of stuff to work on. If my post has your interest peaked and you have not done anything like this, it will take some time to check out the various services I mentioned and set things up to fit your needs, if you so choose. Which will give me ample time to write Part 2. :)

Wait, while it's really up to you, there is still one more thing that should be done before trying to get people visiting your site, but I'll save that for next time.

I wish you all happy blogging.

Technorati Tags: How To Build Site Traffic, Visitors, Blogcatalog, Discussion, Technorati

How To Build Site Traffic

2007-10-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

No I'm not going to pretend to be an expert and tell you that you should follow the steps I lay out for you in a nice and chronological order...well, because I am not an expert. But that does not mean that I can't do research and try different things while keeping track of what works and what doesn't. On a related note, what works for me will not necessarily work for you the same way, but that does not mean you can't use it at all.

So please join me as I try to increase my traffic and maybe what I find will help you increase yours.

Technorati Tags: How To Build Site Traffic, Visitors

Bloggerwave

2007-10-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested in earning money while blogging about their favorite topics, should check out Bloggerwave. In this quickly growing Web 2.0 trend many companies are popping up promissing money for blogging and it can be very difficult to find the right ones to sign up with. Unlike most, Bloggerwave stands out at the top and is positioning itself well to be a leader in this growing pay to blog market.

Technorati Tags: Advertisement, Blogging, Paid to Blog,

Looking towards the future for a cleaner today

2007-10-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about our environment and all the different things that are being done by people to help contribute in keeping our planet clean. Then I thought it's a wonderful effort but we are barely keeping up with the constantly changing environment due to pollution and other negative impacts. So I thought automobile companies have a great way to help contribute significantly today to insure that tomorrow will be cleaner.

Should automobile manufacturers continue investing millions of dollars in the hybrid vehicle? Is it really such a good thing for our environment? The short answer is a most definite yes, but the point I would like to make is that we are taking a quick victory for helping our economy that will eventually present a much bigger problem then the benefit we gain today. Why do I say this? Well the answer is pretty simple really...the batteries. What happens when the thousands of hybrids out there get to a point when the batteries need to be replaced? How are we going to dispose of the old batteries and what happens to all the chemicals inside them, such as mercury?

I think that the future state of our environment can benefit more if our car manufacturers put more effort into finding cleaner and alternative fuels such as clean diesel. What's happening now is not unlike someone going to a doctor for chronic stomach pains and the doctor prescribing a pain medication which treats the problem, but does not identify the cause, and the patient never really recovers and the problem can grow into something worse. I say we should stop putting band-aids on our environment and work on eliminating the cause so that our future will be cleaner.

Technorati Tags: Environment, Earth, Save our Planet, Awareness

Today's Highlight

2007-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

I added a section at the bottom of the page called "Today's Highlight". I will update it with vidoes that I find to be exceptional in one way or another and worth sharing.

The first video was linked to me by a friend and I just had to share it. Click here or scroll to the very bottom to see it.

Technorati Tags: Video, Clip