01 Mar 2008
The February contest has come to a close. The winner is C-Squared of An Unsuspecting Notebook. Congratulations! I’ll be posting a review of your blog in the upcoming week. Please email your 125 x 125 banner to tish at blogginggal dot com. It will remain on my site for the entire month of March.
Details on the March contest will be posted shortly.
29 Feb 2008
Blogging Gal’s PageRank has increased from PR0 to PR3! The blog is less than three months old, so I’m pretty excited!
28 Feb 2008
If you’ve got a burning question or are in need of advice about a blogging or Internet related topic, I’d love to help. Just drop me a line through my contact form. I’ll choose one reader submitted question each week, and I’ll answer it right here on my blog. I will award 50 Entrecard credits to the person who submits the chosen question. Preference will be given to interesting questions that other readers can benefit from. All questions will be kept on file, so if your question isn’t selected during the week you submit it, it could be chosen at a later date. There is no limit to the number of questions you can submit. I look forward to seeing the questions roll in!
24 Feb 2008
If you’re an Entrecard addict, you can now feed your addiction by dropping 300 cards (the daily maximum) in only 20 minutes. PowerDropping.com contains a list of the 300 fastest loading sites that have their Entrecard widgets positioned above the fold. Load times for these sites currently range from .17 seconds to 1.57 seconds each.
Walt of 365 Days to Freedom dot Com launched PowerDropping.com just a couple of weeks ago. Not only does it provide Entrecard users with a constantly updated resource for the fastest loading sites in the Entrecard community, but it also rewards the listed sites by sending them tons of traffic and Entrecard drops.
If you’d like to give PowerDropping a try, I recommend first reading Walt’s post entitled How to Drop 300 Entrecards Per Day in Just 20 Minutes. It’s full of valuable tips, including how to check the load time for your own sites. If your load time is less than that of the 300th blog on the list, you’ll be able to join the top 300.
Good luck with your PowerDropping!
If you’ve never been personally attacked in your comments, well - you just haven’t been blogging long enough. It all comes down to one universal truth. You can’t please all the people all the time.
Everyone responds differently to negative comments. Some people delete them. Some respond with attacks of their own. And still others take the high road, choosing to defend themselves in a respectful manner. I admire those bloggers with the ability to handle such unpleasant situations with that kind of tact.
Most of us are are familiar with Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. My good friend John Motson wrote a review of ProBlogger for BlogsWeLuv a while back. A reader left the following comment.
“Boo Boo Boo. Problogger is full of crap to line his pocketbook. He blogs about grass and makes you want to invest years blogging in hopes you will have a popular blog like his. Very hurtful to the normal blogger who has no clue that it will never happen. He is laughing all the way to the bank. Boo Boo Just like John Chow the con man.”
Darren actually took the time to leave a reply - a reply that earned him my utmost respect.
“Sorry you feel that way about ProBlogger. Yes I do blog to earn a living (something that I see from your blog you don’t seem to be against as it’s got it’s fair share of advertising and affiliate programs) but I also attempt to help those that I write for by providing information on what I do and what others are doing to make money from blogging.
I never promise anyone that they’ll get rich or become popular - in fact I’ve written many posts about how hard this is (examples).
Yes some bloggers out there talk about blogging as a get rich quick thing and hype it up - but I’ve gone out of my way to attempt to give a realistic understanding of what can be achieved and just how much work it takes.
In the end you can think what you like about me and my blog - but I’d encourage you to take a second look and to drop me an email if you think I need to be challenged on anything (always happy to take a look at constructive critique).”
I’ll admit that I haven’t been as professional as Darren in my responses to personal attacks. In most cases, I’ve completely ignored the offending remarks. But I’d like to change that. I’d like to present a more humane approach in the future. And I hope that you will choose to do the same. I think we can all learn a thing or two about integrity from Darren Rowse.
17 Feb 2008
KieranG recently left the following comment on my blog.
“Someone needs to write a blog post about this Entrecard rubbish. I have no idea what it is, nor if it is any help with blog traffic.”
Kieran, this post is for you - and for anyone else who hasn’t already jumped on the Entrecard bandwagon.
Entrecard is an excellent networking tool that allows you to advertise your blog on other sites within the Entrecard network. Entrecard members display advertising widgets on their sites, and other members “purchase” these ad spots with Entrecard credits.
Entrecard credits can be earned in several different ways. You earn one credit when you drop your card into another blog’s widget. You earn a credit when a member drops his card into your widget. And, of course, you earn credits when someone purchases your ad space.
The price for each blog’s advertising space is equivalent to two times the average number of cards dropped on the blog per day. This ensures that for every two credits you spend, one unique visitor will be seeing your ad and clicking in its general vicinity. Purchased ads run for 24 hours, and visitors who click them are taken directly to the advertised blog.
I joined Entrecard a week ago, and I am averaging about 22 visits per day from the Entrecard website. My first ad is just now running, so I don’t yet know how many visitors to expect from ad clicks.
If you’re looking for a free, yet effective way to promote your blog, you should sign up for Entrecard. You’ll need a 125 x 125 banner ad. Tom Ross was kind enough to create my banner. Feel free to contact him for his rates. Mike Wheeler is another good source for banners.
If you’d like to score a bunch of Entrecard credits, there are a number of blog contests that are awarding them as prizes. Here are a few to get you started.
Good luck, and happy card dropping!
16 Feb 2008
The very first review of Blogging Gal has been published! Tom of Push Standards wrote a great review of this blog, focusing mainly on areas for improvement. Being a web designer, he had some fabulous suggestions for increasing the visual appeal of the site. I am already working to implement some of them.
A great big thank you to Tom for the honest feedback! My talents lie predominantly in creating content, so I always welcome design suggestions.
If you’re interested in receiving an in depth critique of your blog, Tom’s review services are for hire - and well worth the money!
13 Feb 2008
BlogsWeLuv is currently hosting a great contest in which you can win a blog review and 1,000 Entrecard credits. To get in on the action, just participate in a 10 Question interview about you and your blog. All interviews will be posted to the site, so this is a great chance to promote your blog!
If you do choose to answer the 10 questions, you can receive a second entry in the contest just by dropping your card on the Entrecard widget.
The deadline for entering the contest is February 29th. A winner will be selected through random.org at midnight that night. Check out the contest post for more details.
As you may know, BlogsWeLuv was founded by myself and Mike Wheeler of Things By Mike. It has since expanded to include several additional contributors. The blog features reviews of blogs we love, as well as interviews with fellow bloggers. We are currently looking for a few new contributors. Contributors should be prepared to submit one article, on a blog of their choice, each week. If you are interested, please contact us for more details. Include links to three or four articles that you consider to be your best work.
Thank you, and best of luck in the contest!
I recently discovered a great new blog called Push Standards. Authored by Tom Ross, a web designer and aspiring entrepreneur living in Scotland, the blog covers such topics as blogging, web design, and marketing. Though it was launched just earlier this month, there are lots of great, informative articles already available on the site. I’d like to share a few of my favorites.
15 Tips to Boost Your Blog’s Traffic - I’m sure there are at least a few tips here that you’re not currently utilizing, so be sure to check out this article. Though Push Standards is a brand new blog, Tom has been designing websites for more than eight years. He is no stranger to the techniques required to drive traffic to a site.
Please Subscribe! Plus RSS Tips. - This post contains some great advice on improving your RSS feed and securing new readers.
Bloggers are the Friendliest People in the World - I couldn’t agree more!
In addition to its wealth of quality content, Push Standards has a very visually pleasing design. The colors are brilliant, but not at all distracting. Everything is neatly positioned and free of clutter. Tabs across the top of the site allow you to easily navigate through the site’s content.
I always enjoy providing a few site suggestions to my fellow bloggers, but after spending considerable time examining Push Standards, I can come up with very little that can be done to improve the site. My only suggestion is that Tom add the custom banners he recently created to his portfolio page. Given the recently popularity of Entrecard, Project Wonderful, and other such ad programs, I think he should capitalize on the growing need for banner ads.
Push Standards is currently hosting a great contest in which you can win a month of free advertising plus $25 cash. Just post a review of the site to get your entry. The deadline is March 5th, and the best post wins.
It is Tom’s goal to live completely off his online endeavors, and judging from what I’ve seen so far, he’s definitely headed in the right direction. His writing style is impeccable, and his design work is some of the best I’ve seen. If you have any design needs, be sure to check out his portfolio for samples of his work. I’m sure that he can create a quality product to exceed your expectations.
I encourage you to add Push Standards to your list of regular reads. You’ll find lots of helpful information there, and maybe even a new friend!
09 Feb 2008
If you’re a WordPress user and haven’t yet upgraded to version 2.3.3, it’s time to do so. This critical update fixes a security flaw that allows a user of a blog to edit another user’s posts. For more information on the upgrade, you can read the official report and instructions from WordPress.org. If you’re intimidated by the instructions or just prefer a simpler upgrade process, I highly recommend the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. Once installed, the plugin will automatically upgrade to the latest version, so you can use it again and again as new versions are released. I’ve used it with great success on the last two upgrades.
