Sometimes I think, wouldn’t it be great to be a full time blogger?  Then I realize that’s not what I really mean.  What I really mean is, it would be great to make a living as a full time blogger.  I am a full time blogger.  I’m just not making a living at blogging.  For a blogger to make a living, the blogger’s blog must shine.  What to do?  What to do?

Obviously, I don’t know.  Right?  But maybe we can figure this out together.

Image via Wikipedia

There use to be a blog published in Pittsburgh called PittGirl.  It was very popular.  The local newspapers would comment on the blog.  No one knew the identity of the blogger.  No one even knew if the blogger was female.  PittGirl said she worked downtown and her daily posts carried a lot of gossip about the local work scene, local politics and local sports.  She knew the dirt.  She was irreverent, had a phobia of pigeons and spiced her reporting with dirty words.

Then one day PittGirl ran her last post, saying that someone was getting too close to outting her and that could cost her her job.  The blog was deleted.

I only caught the end of PittGirl’s reign as the most popular blog in Pittsburgh.  I can only estimate the money making potential of that blog.  It was a marketing dream come true.

I think we can conclude that out of all of the thousands of blogs in the Pittsburgh area, PittGirl was one of a kind.  Obviously, my blog is not one of a kind.

But I’m working on it.

It’s no surprise people are wary about the accuracy of Wikipedia, considering there are people like Stephen Colbert who are intentionally causing chaos on the site. Colbert once encouraged his fans to go there and post crazy things (like the population of elephants had tripled in just 6 months).

Image via Wikipedia

While it started with Wikipedia, it doesn’t end with it.

Have you ever heard of www.Dickipedia.org? This is a hilarious site listing (mostly true) entries about politicians, pundits and other celebrities that tend to be hated. This site is worth reading if just for the first paragraph of each entry. Here’s a taste:

            Newton “Newt” Leroy Gingrich (born June 17, 1943) is an American politician, author, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1994 Time magazine Person of the Year, college history professor, professional hypocrite, loudmouth, panderer, adulterer, and a dick.

And then there’s www.Chickipedia.com. This site doesn’t hold true to the “encyclopedia” style of Wikipedia. Obviously its owners just wanted to take advantage of a clever domain name.

There’s www.MedPedia.com which is primarily a site for medical professionals.

And it shouldn’t be a surprise that www.Lickipedia.com also exists. You type this in and you’re actually taken to a pretty blank site that directs you to another website that is an on-line resource for lesbians, although I suspect that site gets lots of male visitors.

The oddest –ikipedia is www.Pilkipedia.co.uk. This site is dedicated to the British trio of Karl Pilkington, Steve Merchant and Ricky Gervais (of The Office fame, the original British series).

Image via Wikipedia

What is the next –ikipedia to come? With the current Twilight/True Blood/Vampire Diaries craze, I’d argue that there’s a need for a Vamp-ipedia. There are so many different types of vampire lore out there, and not all used by the same authors, it’d be a helpful site for those trying to figure out why that Vampire Diaries dude can be out in public but the guy in True Blood nearly died trying to go outside in the day.

That’s right!  You get not one, not two, but fifteen utterly original completely free status updates.  You don’t even have to pay shipping and handling folks!  This is a limited time offer.  Your status updates are only available to you for the duration of the existence of Triond.  Should the website hosting this article suddenly fold, these free status updates will no longer be available for you to copy and paste.

So what ere you waiting for?  Hurry up!  Scroll down and grab your status update today!

1) …is waiting for you to comment on their witty status…

2) …has not joined the group “Facebook should have a dislike button.”

3) …does not care if your Facebook group aspires to be the largest group on Facebook.

4) …blocked you from my feed…I don’t care how many mobsters you’ve iced, that you found a pink sheep on your  farm, or that you’ve redecorated your virtual apartment.

5) …likes to post politically divisive comments just to read the firestorm that ensues.

6) …is in his/her bunker preparing for the coming age of the zombies.

7) …doesn’t want to poke you, wants to poke (insert name of hot famous person here).

…combing my toes and clipping my hair.

9) …is distracted by the shiny object.

10) …counter-terrorism at the terrorism counter, buy one disgruntled-relighious-extremist voo-doo doll, get one free.  It’s just our way of helping make the world a better place.

11) …googling “awesome quotes” so that I can post something clever and hope you think I came up with it all on my own.

12) …has decided to stop updating my status with anything personal because fame approaches and how often I have a bowel movement should really be reported in the tabloids instead.

13) …should be sleeping but (click, click) must find out which brand of mustard most represents my personality.

14) …aiting-way or-fay acebook-fay o-tay ome-cay out-ay ith-way ig-pay atin-lay.

15) …is going to see how many “friends” I can get to block me from their feed by posting the most incredibly mundane events of my day today…frequently.  First event, get out of bed…scratch ass.

Image via Wikipedia

Using keywords in your articles will help you to get more traffic from search engines. The whole subject of keywords is made to sound like some mysterious technical thing that you have to study, but it is not. It is simplicity itself with regard to article writing.

If you want to study website statistics for a product and do lots of research into keywords, you can, but the effort required is probably not worth it for the vast majority of article writers.

Good keywords will get you long term traffic on your articles. In other words you will earn money from them for years to come.

Planning Your Keywords.

When you are planning to write an article, think about the main subject. What are your keywords?  Ask yourself what words you would search for on Google and other search engines to find the material you are presenting.

For example, let’s say I am going to write an article about ‘diamonds’.  I know roughly what I am going to say in my article and I know that ‘diamond’ is my main keyword.  I might also want to use a few ‘long-tail keywords’ to. These are just groups of words that people might search for. So I expand the keywords I keep in mind as I write:

diamond

largest diamond

pink diamond

famous diamond

most expensive diamond

largest uncut diamond

That’s just an example to illustrate my point about using keywords.

Using Headings To Stress Your Keywords

A few headings can help you to use the keywords more and still not sound as tough you are ‘stuffing’ as many as possible into the article. Don’t keyword stuff because readers don’t like this and neither does Google and other search engines.

Using keywords in a title.

Next, I need to use the keyword in my title but I don’t want to over do it either in the text, or the title. There are a number of titles I could use but let’s say, for example, I choose, ‘Diamonds are forever: fabulous gemstones’

I’m not saying that this is the perfect way to choose and use keywords but it works for me and I have little technical expertise. No doubt those web marketing experts out there will tell you how complex the whole thing is and I would agree with them, but you have to start somewhere and learn what works best for you as you go along.

Image via Wikipedia

As far as I can tell, a blogger must do two things to be a successful blogger.  The blogger must try to keep the same readers coming back; and the blogger must constantly attract new readers.

The reason my blog has so many different subjects on it is because the blog must constantly attract new readers.  My hope is that some of the new readers will find something in the core subject of the blog that will turn them into regular readers.

My target audience, beginning writers, will find plenty of reasons to keep coming back.  How does a blogger find his or her target audience?  It’s easy.

The blogger must figure out what he or she could blog about endlessly. 

It really doesn’t matter what it is.  Just so long as the blogger can turn out a constant stream of content on it.  Someone on the Internet will want to read it.  But you must have a target reader in mind and aim your content at that reader.  Then every once in awhile throw in some content aimed at readers who are not part of your target audience.

Let me add, if you mainly blog about yourself your target reader is really only one person.  Make sure your target reader is someone else besides yourself.  A blog should entertain, inform or do both.  I read a report once that estimated there are 3 billion or more people on the Internet. 

Your target audience is waiting.

The visual impact of a picture cannot be under-estimated. Pictures tell their own tale, and one picture can tell it more eloquently and powerfully than even the best written thousand-worded essay. Pictures are emotive. By seeking, touching and stroking the emotional chord in us, pictures leave a long-lasting impression on our minds.

One of the techniques to enhance readability is to use white space effectively by interspersing short paragraphs – may be  just a single line – between long paragraphs. This breaks the monotony of black typefaces. Pictures serve a similar purpose of breaking the monotony of lengthy expositions, make you pause and recapture what you have read.

Pictures can also increase the page worth in Google’s eyes, especially if you follow certain rules like choosing a file name containing key words or phrases, and similarly writing a well-chosen caption or description containing key words.

Yet too many pictures can spoil your literary broth, especially if the pictures you have loaded are not relevant and take away from the theme. They serve to increase the time it takes for the page to load. This can turn away potential readers. More importantly, it can pull down Google ranking. Read Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010.

Hidden Features On YouTube

Everyone has heard of YouTube and there are few of us who have never visited the site, or a least heard about it. The site gets a lot of bad press over violent and indecent videos that manage to slip through the net and get uploaded for all to see. There has also been controversy over copyright infringements on the site.

However, this is a truly amazing and entertaining site. It’s a great way to wile away a few hours, or to do a little research. You can watch movie clips, live music videos, cartoons, and a whole host of other things uploaded by users.

That’s not all, though. There are some advanced features and ways to use YouTube that many of us are missing out on.

The Warp Player is a kind of virtual browser that will show you related clips on mouse over and if you click on one it will be played in the middle of your screen. This is a fast way of finding something you want to watch. It’s like a preview facility.

Test Tube has four different features available in one program. You can add notes to video clips, show other people what you are currently watching and add music to video clips. (The music you add should be licensed, or copyright free, or even stuff you have written and played yourself). There is also a facility that can stream chat between users who are watching the same videos. The chat facility is excellent for those who are social animals and enjoy sharing with their friends.

YouTube feeds are RSS feeds that let you know as soon as your favourite contributor has uploaded a new video. This is quite easy to set up using the link provided on the YouTube site. Subscribe to as many feeds as you like.

You can also compile play lists of all your favourite YouTube video clips. Just follow the link below to YouTube play lists and create your list. You can even choose whether to make it shared, or private. It’s really easy to add a video to the list by clicking the tab under the video choose where you want to list it and save it. The list will be there next time you want it. It’s that easy.

The play list function is great for making a collection of music videos featuring your favourite tracks and performers. It is also good for collecting informational videos that you want to view later. The music lessons and language lessons on You Tube often come in parts so it is really useful to gather these up and save them in a play list so that you don’t have to go looking for them when ever you want to look something up.

If you are good at repairing vehicles, detailing and cleaning them, or even giving them an engine tune up there are lots of opportunities out there for you to make extra money, no matter where you live. In fact, the information here could be relevant to just about any skill you might have.

In the current economic climate there are people who are skilled in particular trades but are no longer employed in their particular field of expertise. They may be skilled motor engineers, specialists in car electrics or have any number of skills. This is where selling automotive services on a freelance basis makes sense. If you have a skill in the automotive service field you can sell yourself and your skills on sites like Craigslist and Gumtree which will both list you for free.

The whole thing is simplicity itself and all you have to do is register with the sites and set up your profile. Make sure you sell your skills and do not leave any out so that prospective buyers will know just how good you are. There are lots of people in your area who need your expertise and these people can soon be your customers, once they know you are there.  However, you might not be restricted to your local geographical area.  Sites like getafreelancer.com and  ifreelance.com  are excellent because they take care of everything including taking payment.

Say, for example, that you are a real motorcycle enthusiast and know all about classic Harley Davidson’s, BSA or Norton bikes. You may have a wealth of knowledge that someone from another area might be willing to pay for. So you can freelance both your skills in the automotive services field and your expertise.

If you are into car rental you could sell your service on an hourly freelance basis, or even offer to chauffer drive from airports, train stations and bus depots. There are many ways to cash in on your talents.

On the other hand if you live in a particular area and require automotive services of any kind, it will usually work out much cheaper to find a freelancer and negotiate a price that to try to deal with big garages and repair companies. Craigslist and net4manpower.com  are both good for this as they list freelancers who work in automotive services and other areas and let you see at a glance what their particular expertise is, what they are likely to charge and where they are located. You can also read feedback from others who have hired them, by way of reference.

So, if you have these skills or any others listed and join the freelancer sites because it costs you nothing and could soon make you some extra money.

The benefits of Club Penguin

Aside from the entertainment and recreation value, the game can help develop social confidence, mathematical and reading skill and hand eye coordination.

Club penguin is especially designed for children and has safeguards in place to make it safe for children.

The fears with Club Penguin

There is no harmful content within the game itself, the game is created for 6 – 14 year old’s and you will not find anything objectionable within the game or website.

The fear comes through the socialising aspect. The same as a chat room or an instant message, someone could pose as a child and attempt to get real world information from the child or expose them to offensive language.

The club penguin website claims club penguin is safe and they would allow the developers would allow their own children and grandchildren to play there.

Club Penguin security

Club penguin has several safeguards in place. The company employs full time staff within the game, known as moderators, and encourages other players to report abusive behaviour.

When an account is created with the game, the option is given between standard safe chat and ultimate safe chat. With standard safe chat, offensive words are filtered out and cannot be said. With ultimate safe chat, players can only communicate with preset messages and actions.

A parent can set daily play hours and an hourly limit to prevent a child spending too much time on the game or playing too late.

Club Penguin risks

Club penguin is not completely safe for children to play.

With standard safe chat some words, or variations of words, will make it past the filters. The filters can’t stop a child from giving away real life location and there are plenty of private places in game, where a potential threat could talk to your child on their own.

An older child could create their own email account to bypass a play time and ultimate safe chat restriction.

A malicious internet group occasionally causes problems within the game world. They will use offensive and abusive language and bypass moderators attempts to remove them. The only proper protection from this is ultimate safe chat.

How to make Club Penguin safe

You can supervise your child while they play, install remove viewing software or even play with them. This way you can watch them and ensure they don’t expose themselves to risks or offensive material.

If you want your child to remain on ultimate safe chat, you can restrict their computer account from accessing any email websites. If, for example, you allow them only to access Club Penguin they can only send and receive preset messages.

These risks exist in every corner of the internet but if you follow this precautions then Club Penguin is safe for your child to play. If in doubt, sit next to them at all times and engage with them.

The growth of Social Networking Games

Simple point and click time management or ‘dash’ games have always held a small percentage of the gaming market. With the growth of social networking, the ability of these games expanded. Social gamers can find free games to play without searching or downloading and they can play with their friends.

The standard MMO requires payment, a download and time to learn the basics at least. These are barriers for new players so they need a real drive to start playing. With a social networking game it only takes a few clicks and you’ve got the basics.

The nature of social networking games gives them free advertising. Players advertise the game and invite their friends to join just by playing the game. Their friends are usually given a free in game gift message sent to them through the network. If a group of friends start playing, others may play just not to be left out. No other genre has that kind of advertising.

The profiting from Social Networking Games

The games are usually free to play but the developers can monetize them by offering bonuses for cash or placing occasional advertising within the game. Zynga, a successful social networking game startup, has profitable two months after their first game. In fact the industry is that profitable bigger groups such as Ubisoft and EA have moved into the market.

Social networking games can be as complicated or as simple as the developer wants. With the massive audience available to them they are bound to find someone it’ll appeal to.

Some social networking games have become so successful that they’ve stretched over different social networks. There is even a demanding underground market for real life cash for in game item trades, guides and cheats.

The future of Social Networking Games

The social networking game industry have also followed the trend towards wireless handheld devices. Some of the more popular games, such as Mafia Wars from Zynga, have produced their own iPhone application.

Social networks have become incorporated into our personal and business lives. With Facebook averaging over 1 billion visits a month and Myspace lagging not too far behind (January 09 compete.com social network rank) social networking games certainly have leg room to grow.

Social networking games have been knocked in the past for being overly basic and childish but a simple enjoyable game is what a casual gamer is looking for. The question is how long will the trend last?