It's 31st already. Hope you all have some of that Christmas spirit left. Just enough to get your party New Year's Eve party going.
Hope you guys are all having a good time and are ready for 2008 with New Year's challenging Resolutions!:)
A very very Happy New Year to you all!
Chris
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Is Your Entrecard Getting You Good Free Traffic?
Traffic is what bloggers strive for and they are most likely to try to advertise as cheap as possible. Getting hits, RSS subscribers, comments without paying anything, at least at the beginning. This is what I am doing too. I am raising my numbers, as I have a long way to go to reach my million unique visitor by October 2008.
Entrecard is another traffic raising idea a new and old blogger can consider. Entrecard is a virtual business card that advertises a blog. Open up a free account and get their widget on your sidebar. After that you start earning credits by having your card dropped to others or by having others drop their cards to you. After you have acquired enough credits you can advertise on other blogs. What this means is that you'll get traffic from other blogs. The image you choose will be shown for a day on selected blogs. The more credits you make the more ads you can buy with those credits.
I have setup an Entrecard account for almost a day already. I have placed my card inside the footer, as I was testing my new 3 column footer. I have moved it top of my right sidebar and I am already getting cards dropped and I am having people asking for ad space. Of course this demand is bigger now as the costs in credits for having your blog advertised on mine is very low. This price is simply by counting how many card you have dropped and how many others have dropped on you. The best idea is having your price higher so big blogs will be interested in advertising with you.
The Entrecard campaigns go well with my exploring the community strategy. As you might have noticed I have blogged about other blogs and Entrecard will only lead me to other blogs. The best will be featured here.
Does Entrecard seems an awfully similar to BlogRush concept? Well yes it does. Which one is better? We'll just have to wait and see.
I will be comparing these two in the future.
3 Column Footer for Blogger
Right before Christmas I was changing my template from a 2 column template to a 3 column template for my blog. Why did I do that? Well I need more space in my sidebar(s) for the widgets I am thinking about setting up, for ads and more. I am actually considering a further upgrade to a 4 column template to better configure the space I am allowed to use. I want to fully take advantage of the space offered by Blogspot for a blog. Besides the content I am working on the visual aspects of the blog.
In the mean time I have converted the footer from what Blogspot offers as basic to a 3 column footer. That means I can conveniently add elements to the footer from now on. As a test I have added About Me, Labels and Archive to the footer for now but I most likely to make changes to that.
If you want your blog page to have an active footer, then here is the link to detailed instructions. It' s just about a little HTML modifying to your template. Just make sure you have saved your initial template before.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
How to Win a Free iPhone?
Who doesn't want a new iPhone? It's probably one of the coolest gadgets of 2007. You can get them from many places and for various prices. I am sure you must have received tons of spam e-mails telling you how you are about to or how you just won a free iPhone.
Well now you have a chance of winning a free iPhone right here. Well of course it is not free, but it doesn't necessarily cost you any money. It is a contest I have found around the blogosphere hosted by a fellow blogger. As long as you post a comment on the blog and/or subscribe to RSS feeds by e-mail and/or you write a blog post on your blog about this contest, you can win the free iPhone. Basically you get up to 5 entries in the pool depending on what your action is. The deadline is however January 10th for entering so I'd hurry up.
I was telling you about Blog Hopping and about How to Advertise Your Blog in earlier posts. Well this kind of contest, and there are others around, will only raise your traffic stats. It's a good strategy to get visitors and RSS subscriptions once you have a budget to roll with. It gets you some exposure and your blog gets more hits. It's thinking outside the box that will get you the extra visits on your site.
Good luck winning that iPhone then!
Friday, December 28, 2007
How to Go Blog Hopping for Traffic?
We are in between major holidays, Christmas and New Year and yet all bloggers find time to write a post or two about what's going on or not.
I was explaining how to advertise your blog or at least how I will be doing it for as long as my blog will be out there demanding readers! One of my points was the blogging community. Being active and being involved will get a blogger noticed. Blog Hopping can help you out on that one.
I am sure that everyone of us has read a blog and grew fond of particular blogs. Some of those actually got involved indirectly in that blog's life by posting comments, adding their thoughts, sharing opinions with other readers.
Well that's something I am doing too. I also am following some blogs on a day to day basis, and sure I am going to leave my comments if I have something to say about a certain topic. Leaving my comment will also get my blog linked to those particular blogs and it will improve my Google stats. But more on Google stats in an other post.
We are Blog Hopping here which is something like Bar Hopping. Well if you take out all the liquor (or not) and you check out blog after blog after blot you will be Blog Hopping for sure. It's an interesting idea, meant to improve traffic for those involved in it. If you have a blog and you want it hopped just check the current blogs being featured and prepare to greet all your visitors.
Current blog hopping list is as follows, and I am getting ready to have my blog hopped!:)
Winning the Web, Fresh Geeks, Mike Folan, Bankruptcy to Millionaire, Pajama Professional
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto Assassinated Twice
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the 27th of December. She was the first Pakistani woman politician to be elected prime minister. And then she was the second Pakistani to be elected as a prime minister.
Both times she was charged with corruption and was forced to resign and go to exile. Apparently she managed to annoy a few fellow citizens. In a world where we are still facing terrorism and extremist, a former prime minister and a figure of Pakistani politics was killed not once but twice if I can say so. She followed the family tradition. She got elected, was accused of something and then was killed.
Not only was Bhutto shut but she was also blown up. I guess they wanted to be sure that this time she will die. Or was that some kind of contest of who and how gets her first?
For sure there must have been a good prize. But who will actually get it? The bomber or the shooter. Imagine the shooter and bomber to be the same person? If so it would mean the shooter doesn't trust his aim. He mush have shooter's block if there is such a thing. But his running with a bomb after shooting skill would be remarkable...
Seriously now, why would someone make such an effort to get a person killed?
Life is beautiful so "carpe diem". Live like you wish, accomplish your dreams, say what you feel. Benazir Bhutto wasn't afraid to become a prime minister and to express her opinions and views. About the corruption accusations, well who knows? Charges have been dropped.
What is Technorati?
I was talking the other day about Technorati and how I set up an account with them in my pursuit of reaching the million traffic mark for my blog in 365 days.
So basically Technorati is a huge collection of blogs if you want. You can sign up for free and claim your blog later if you have one. It takes less than a day to have your blog approved. After that you can browse around, check the blogs featured and what others Technorati users are writing about. See what's hot, what people are topics are being searched today, what videos are popular. Get all the news, pick your favorite writers and more.
There are more than 9 million blogs registered. As I started I had my blog ranked at 8.9 million and now it's somewhere at 4.6. That only means my traffic has steadily increased over the last few days. Another cool thing is that, of course, you get linked to from Technorati and your content will come up in any searches made by other Technorati users.
It also has lots of cool widgets for your blogs and desktop. There must be other blogger communities like Technorati for me to discover as writers all over the net find these tools great for increasing their traffic. Besides offering hot news and what-not, Technorati will do just that. It will increase your traffic numbers slowly but surely. Don't expect a next day miracle, but as long as you have something to write about, and as long as you update regularly you will rank higher and higher with Technorati therefore you will be getting more exposure.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
How to Advertise Your Blog?
I have started this blog with having a "simple" mission in mind. Getting 1 Million unique readers in 365 days. That might seem impossible, unreachable, funny, courageous, unrealistic, weird... and the list can go on. But remember we are all human and we have built everything we have on dreams, on goals and missions. No matter how crazy those might have been they led to progress, they empowered mankind and gave life meaning. Whether I do or don't succeed I will be still blogging, while still getting another mission and another one after that. Without dreams we are nothing are we?
Almost three months have passed and I still have a long way to go, but in the mean time I have been browsing the internet, wondering how I will advertise my blog, besides asking my friends' friends, and their families' families to check my blog. Then the logic question, how will I pay for advertising online? And the more logic question, how will I make money off my blog to pay for any advertising at all?
AdWords and AdSense
I know how basically Google's AdWords and AdSense work and I started explaining how these tools work in an earlier post and I will be getting back with more and more details. There are other services that would basically offer the same but for now I have chosen Google for my needs.
BlogRush
BlogRush as a free means of advertising might prove to be very successful for my blog, but then again, who knows? I have started testing it and wrote a few things about how it should be set up. We'll see how this one goes.
Technorati
I have been approved by Technorati but haven't told you guys what it is and how it's working. I am assuming the majority of the blogger community knows what this resource is and what it can do for your blog. You can get some publicity, see what's hot and what is not. Get your hands on a few good blogs as good bloggers should be reading each others posts.
Blogging Community
While all this here might seem logical, it takes some time for a blogger to find research all these things. Best tools to use are other blogs. They do not represent competition strictly. They are a way of keeping your blog updated. Find out valuable things especially if you are new in this "business". Sure at some point there's a natural sense of competing for readers. But competition like dreaming and having goals to accomplish, is as important to improve our civilization, right?
But will I advertise my blog using other blogs? Why that is actually so simple. By posting comments on other people's blogs, by reviewing other blogs and getting reviews in response, by linking to others and being linked back.
Blog Content
In order to get visitors or traffic to a blog you would need to make it appealing to a certain category of the public. You will not be able to right everything for everyone. You will not get everyone online to check your blog. Again then, how does one write a good blog?
I am writing about I know and about what I learn connected to my mission. Everything else I write about is a part of who I am, a tiny part that I transform in words and phrases. In time it will add up and search engines will direct some traffic to my blog if people will be interested in what I am writing. There's no other way of writing. You can't write only for content. You can optimize the way you are writing but that will take time to.
Santa Claus
There must be lots of other ways of free-to-almost-free advertising. I will add them as I will discover them. I will also add more things about how I will try to turn this blog into a self supporting blog. There must be lots of methods of making a reliable income off the net, and I am not talking about all those schemes that will show you how to quit your job and make money online. Maybe if I am a good boy, Santa will get the 1 million visitors I wanted in a year?
Merry Christmas
It's Christmas 2007 already. Hope everyone was good and Santa left them tons of presents. At least that's essentially what we are taught into believing since childhood, that Santa only brings gifts to good people. So what happens with those "bad" people which are still receiving their gifts on due time? Does this prove the fact Santa doesn't really exist?
I'd like to hear from others what it felt like finding out Santa doesn't really exist. It would make a great blog - as long as people would send in their stories.
Enough about that though. Christmas is and should be all about family and friends and about that time spent in each others company. I hope you are enjoying these days of Christmas as I know I am!
Here's a sneak peak on my next movie. I haven't seen it yet but I'll be back with details. Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas Carols
Merry Christmas out there, to each and everyone of you! Let Santa bring you the True Spirit of Christmas and its Joy! Unwrap the gifts under the tree and cherish the company of your loved ones! Give meaning to Christmas and remember why we gather each year to celebrate it as it should be! Be the Christmas miracle your family and friends await and don't let the ghosts of Christmas Pasts torment you!
And as I have started caroling a few days back, here are more carols for you all!
Joy to The World - and more
The 12 Days of Christmas - out of the box!:)
Saturday, December 22, 2007
How to Watch Free Movies?
If you went ahead and googled "Movie Reviews" you would find more than 40 million indexed pages containing these words. If you went ahead and googled "Free Movies" you would find more than 50 million indexed pages.
Since I was a little boy I enjoyed going to the movies and years later I am the same. I love watching all kinds of movies and that's why some of my posts are movies reviews. That's why I have the "Top at The Box Office" section in my blog's left sidebar. Whatever movie genre you might be interested in, they have it and you are a few clicks away from getting the DVD you wanted. Whether it's Blockbuster, CinemaNow, DVD Avenue or Disney's Movies, you will find what you need for a quiet winter evening.
And so we get to the free movies part. I have recently came accross to this movies site right here. You don't need an account - you can set one up if you like - you don't need to pay any fees, you don't have to wait a DVD delivery. You just click it and watch it if they have it. Of course the image quality or the 1D sound will be delivered according to what you paid for. But hey, you get a right-then-and-there-free-movie if that is what you wanted.
How Often Do I Blog?
Someone recently must have asked me this question. Or was it me thinking it out loud?
Well as I stated my mission in some of my previous posts, there should be only one answer. I blog daily or almost daily. I got myself a goal - a million unique visitors in one year for a blog. The only way I could be achieving this is by writing, by creating readable content and getting readers to send other readers to my blog.
But I do not write if I don't have anything to write about. I write only about things I know and I enjoy. Every article I choose represents a part of me. So I don't have a number of post per day, a number of words. Nor do I have certain themes I approach. I do not think of subjects and then arrange words around them but rather I wait for my inspiration. There is no writing strategy for reaching my goal (yet!). I am building an advertising strategy day by day using free basic tools from this whole wide web.
You will find post on anything around here. My inspiration comes from both real and virtual life. Whenever I find it I lay it down on "paper". It often happens that I come upon a subject I would write about, and while ideas run through my head, my fingers aren't running over a keyboard. And so the subject might fade away by the time I have reached "my writing tool".
As long as I let my imagination run wild I will have new topics everyday. And I am young, I have lots of unspoken words to be printed out!:)
"SILENCE Night" and "Jingle BOMBS" from Achmed the Dead Terrorist
Do you know Jeff Dunham characters? Do you know Jeff Dunham's Achmed the dead terrorist?
Well here they are wishing and caroling as they know best. Their "SILENCE night" and "Jingle BOMBS" could be fun alternatives to regular carols in case you wanted to spice up your tune!
I Am Legend
I just saw Will Smith's last movie I Am Legend which happens to be top at the Box Office with $80 million in the first week and I don't exactly know if I liked it or not. I mean sure, I was waiting for it as I've seen Will Smith kicking E.T.'s ass not once but at least three times (Independence Day, Men in Black 1 and 2) or getting angry at robots out of control (I, Robot).
In I Am Legend he is fighting some kind of zombies. Well actually he is only fighting them if attacked. These zombies are the side effect of a drug which was designed to cure cancer. What it did instead is mutate in some kind of a virus similar to rabies. Those affected become enraged, animals looking for prey. And apparently 588 million zombies by 2012 have taken over the world and fed off everything, including most of the other 12 million immune people.
Dr/Col Robert Neville (Will Smith) is of course immune to this virus. And in his sad present of 2012 he lives with his dog Sam in New York. They seem to be the last survivors of Manhattan Island. He is working on a cure by day while trying not to loose his mind, and hides at night as the zombies go hunting.
The idea of this movie seems original. One inevitably wonders what he or she would do if left alone in the city. Alone on this Earth. However this is another tragedy movie. Something else hits Earth hard enough to almost wipe out all civilization as we know it. Once again mankind is responsible for the death of its race. Maybe this isn't the most optimistic message to be sent out for Christmas.
What happens in the end? Why I Am Legend? I won't spoil the ending for you as it's after all a movie you can enjoy.
Here's a teaser if you're still considering going to the movies tonight!
Friday, December 21, 2007
How Does BlogRush Work?
I was telling you in an earlier post how I decided to give BlogRush a try as a free way of advertising. It's too early to tell if it is actually working yet, but I found this video on Google Video to better show you how BlogRush was conceived to work and how it should work.
Chuck Norris Facts and Chuck Norris Sues
I guess that everyone knows who Chuck Norris is and most of us have seen at least one movie/show/commercial staring Chuck Norris.
I also will take a guess that even more people know the famous Chuck Norris facts circling the net for the last years. Even Chuck Norris knows those facts and has fun reading them.
However it appears that some guy decided it would be really funny to get all those facts in a book and then it will be really funny, or profitable, to sell this book. Well what do you think Chuck Norris did? He didn't roundhouse kick anyone, but he sued the publishers.
Nobody publishes Chuck Norris. He publishes himself at anytime he chooses to do so by simply looking at blank pages.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Noah Takes a Photo of Himself Every Day For 6 Years
While surfing the net I found this particular video on YouTube, showing a guy, let's call him Noah, who has taken his picture daily for 6 years and then made a video by gluing all those pictures.
Notice the changes around him. Notice how he changes as time passes.
Has he stopped taking those pictures when he finished the video (2000-2006) ? I haven't read any comments on YouTube but at the end of this video you'll see that this is apparently "a work in progress".
Technorati
Technorati is a cool tool for getting more traffic to your blog. I have just signed up for an account and I am exploring it's possibilities.
Coming soon with more details after my blog gets accepted.
Technorati Profile
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
5 Days 'till Christmas
Christmas got here so fast this year but I bet we are all expecting it anxiously. Why is that? Do we still need Santa Clause to cheer us up? Do we need our families and friends closer than the rest of the year? Do we need to reinforce our beliefs no matter what religion we are? Is Christmas just a prelude for the upcoming year? For a new beginning? And what is Christmas anyway?
Well if you get past the shopping sprees and the carols around the goofy fake-bearded Santas and you google Christmas, the first hit you get is Wikipedia's definition of Christmas. You might want to check it out and get their side of the story. If there's time for more research, you might want to get your hands on Zeitgeist - The Movie. It's a 2007 documentary which starts from religion and humankind's need to believe in something more powerful than man and soon gets involved into the events of 9/11 and the truth behind. Either way you must have your reasons for enjoying Christmas.
Christmas Present from my point of view means going home. Spending quality time with family and friends. Remembering Christmas Past and imagining Christmas Future. Analyzing where I was a year ago and what changed since. Getting an action plan draft for the upcoming year. It's not necessarily about religion, it's not about the presents and the parties, but it's mainly about preserving the feeling I was raised with. Christmas is a time for miracles, no matter how you choose to see them.
So let Christmas come already. Santa must be coming too!:)
Are We In a BlogRush?
The way we express what we feel has changed so much as time passed by. Since Johannes Gutenberg invented the first mechanical printer, man has been writing and publishing tons of books on tons of subjects. Today, as the 21st century goes by faster and faster, we are still publishing tons of information about anything we feel like. Only now we are using free blog service, email, text messages.
So are we in a blog rush? Is everyone of us getting at least a blog?
Well the BlogRush I am talking about is a concept many bloggers have already implemented. As you already might notice in the right sidebar, there's a Blogosphere provided by BlogRush.
What this tool is supposed to do is to raise traffic for your blog. For each distinct view of your blog your account gets credited with a credit. Each credit is used to place your blog link in one's Blogosphere. So the more views you get, the more credits, the more appearances on other people's blogs. The more appearances, the more views and the more credits.
Another interesting fact is that your referrals and their traffic will get you more credits thus more traffic.
I decided to give BlogRush a test drive to see how it's working our for a new blog like mine. The main downside appears to be this never-ending circuit. Those bloggers with lots of daily views will get more and more display space while those at the beginning will be at some disadvantage.
If you want to give BlogRush a try, simply setup an account, wait for approval and check your stats HERE. If it doesn't work out you can simply try something else.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Writing Tool :)
While I was surfing for widgets I realized I haven't introduced my writing tool to my readers. Well I am using a keyboard which is conveniently attached to my 2005 Dell Inspiron Laptop.
What makes this particular keyboard tick is a 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M processor, and the 1.73GHz 1GB RAM. Along these there's the 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 and the 80GB Toshiba Harddrive. Combine all these with a wide 17-inch monitor and ultimately with me and you will get the blog you are reading now.
The Logitech MX518 mouse is rarely used for blogging and achieves better performance under stress in various PC games.
So I basically have used this system for a little over two years. Am I going to finally upgrade or not? Well we'll see more about that in the Computers section!
Minor Changes
I though this blog's deserves a Christmas present so I am tunning up its looks. So far I changed the template and I will be browsing for some cool widgets if there are any. At least there should be some.
Let's not forget we are actually looking for a million readers from around the world. Looks are just as important as content!
Christmas Songs I Hate...
Ho ho ho!:) Chrismas is a week away. Everyone is making their last minute shopping, preparing for the holidays and we are all listening to carols or Christmas related songs!
Two of these songs bother me especially. They are not carols and they aren't bad songs either. I just got tired of listening to them around Christmas.
These are Wham! - Last Christmas and Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas is You
Wham! - Last Christmas
Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas is You
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The Golden Compass
Among other things this is a part-time movie blog as I dedicate a fair amount of my free time to watching all kinds of movies. Right now I am particularly looking for Christmas movies, new releases, old classics, whatever I can get my hands on. In the mean time I've seen The Golden Compass is Chris Weitz new movie which I am going to review today.
In case you are Harry Potter's, Lords of the Ring's or Narnia's fans then you are in luck. This movie has it all: kids that are chosen for something, a completely different universe, lots of amazing characters, magic and scenaries, good guys and bad guys, quests and lots of fighting. I don't know if I am ready for yet another trilogy nor do I know if this is going to be a three-part movie. However I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went ahead and watched. Did I enjoy it? Yes and No.
Yes because the story, although simple and predictable at times, is catchy and you immediately find yourself emerged in this new universe. This world in which all humans have their own bound demon (an animal that accompanies them at all times since childhood) has its rules, its classes, its parties. You can feel the magic, and soon you discover all this characters whether man or animal talking. You find the predictable different "races" the sorceresses, the kingdom of bears. There's also this Dust who's supposed to be magic and all. This Dust is responsible for what is going to happen during this movie.
Young Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is a smart girl who gets involved, more or less because of her own choosing, in getting into her uncle's (Daniel Craig) quest of getting to the Arctic Pole of this parallel universe to follow up on this magic Dust that no one apparently wants to talk about.
She gets to meet Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) a nice lady who encourages Lyre to follow her to the North Pole. Little does the audience know that Nicole Kidman actually portraits one of the villains of this first episode. She is in charge of a secret organization who's only goal seems to be the separation of demons from their young children.
Needless to say that Lyra escapes Coulter and soon gets involved into rescuing her friends which have been taken away by that secret organization. She soon builds up her army of supporting characters. They all have reasons for wanting in and qualities which will count at some point of the story. The story is filled with action, fighting, funny moments and the cast is doing what they are paid for. The voices and animation are professional and add flavor to The Golden Compass.
I haven't told you what that Golden Compass actually is, but I won't spoil it for you. It's explanation is at the beginning of this movie anyway.
And I said I also didn't enjoy it. Why not? Well... Does this story sound familiar in any way? How about original? Does this sound in any way like a Lords of the Ring review? Tale away the names of the characters. You basically have two gangs who are fighting each other. Creatures and Man are talking and are significant for their world You have young promising and most importantly chosen heroes that will get their quests done in 3 to 7 movies. You have the beautiful sceneries and the magical/parallel world. You get armies of witches and really cool armored north-pole bears. You have a story for kids of all ages which I would be reading at any time to my own children.
That's why I didn't enjoy it you ask? Well yes! I would read these story but not take my children to watch the movie. They are being indirectly told that if you believe strongly in something, not necessarily something that is right, then it's ok to actually go to war about it. I mean sure, it's fun to see trees fighting back, polar bears charging, lions leading an army, magic and spells, or dragons getting some action, but basically the violence is still violence no matter what. All the special effects, the editing and directing skills will only enhance that.
But basically I didn't enjoy it so much because it's not a new idea. It's not breath-taking as its predecessors. It's something I already have seen in other movies exactly like this one, and those movies are still fresh in anyone's minds.
So there you have it. The Golden Compass is a great movie for many points of view, but so not special from at least as many points of view. Should you watch it? Well why not? Better be prepared for the upcoming parts - if there are any!
My favorite moment: the "jaw-breaking" bear fight.
Friday, December 14, 2007
What is Google Adsense?
I have explained before how I monitor this blog's stats using Google Analytics and went through what it basically offers. I also took a look at Google Adwords as a means to advertise my blog online but it's a little more complicated and I will get more details as I learn more myself.
This post however is about another Google's tools, never would have guessed it ha? Actually it is funny how my main e-mail address or messenger account are other than Google's but so far I am kind of advertising Google for other services that I find useful. In other words today's tool is Google Adsense. What it does is pretty simple. It lets you put up sponsored links on your sites or blogs after they get approved. Whenever a visitor is clicking on that site, Google gets a commission for that click. That means a person is paying for having their adds shown. The ads they create using Google Adwords. By setting up a Google Adsense campaign, you will get a commission off Google's commission. The percentage varies depending on various factors such as: number of visitors, content ads prices, page location, etc.
How did I discover it? I was looking for a way to advertise on my fresh blog. All the money I would make I would invest into promoting this blog to reach the million visitor mark. Again Google seems to provide what you need to make yourself heard. And what else if not making us heard, or better said, read, are we bloggers doing all over the net? I mean there must be those who are writing professionally and those who are writing for fun. Either way they are all trying to differentiate themselves, to stand out, to express whatever they want to.
I started from a mixed actual dream (and it is was not day-dreaming) and a stupid question of one day. Would I reach one million readers after a year? And how would I do it?
Google offers some means. I am looking into them individually and starting today you will get some sponsored ads in here with the help of Google Adsense!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
How to Write a Good Blog?
There are millions of blogs around and millions of bloggers writing about anything, about everything and about nothing.
What am I writing about? I am writing about things I like, things I've seen, things I would want to share with others.
How did I ended up starting a blog? Well sometimes I tend to talk too much so why not write some of it down?
So I guess I really don't know how to write a good blog. I am just writing mine. This probably means that as long as I like it I am writing a good blog. On the other hand, if one writes so others will read, then the number of readers one has at the end of the day might turn out to be the answer to this question.
We will see more about blogs and good blogging. Stay tunned!:D
Stupid Question of the Day...
How many pages would one need to print the entire wikipedia as it is exactly this minute?
Monday, December 10, 2007
Lions for Lambs
Although 'tis the season to be jolly with Christmas coming up in 2 weeks, my movie recommendation for today is another "war on terror" movie.
I am talking about Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs. It's one of 2007 must see. I was talking earlier about The Kingdom, an action packed movie portraying the American response to terror. Well Lions for Lambs, takes on the same challenge. It has little to no action and it is a rather static movie. Except for brief moments of rapid gun fire surrounding two American soldiers involved in the Afghan war, the story concentrates on a handful of complicated characters.
Robert Redford, who also directs this film, is the university professor trying to motivate a particular student, a student that shows great potential, but who apparently choses to ignore what he would be able to achieve.
Meryl Streep is a DC reporter. She has seen a lot and she has been through a lot. Many political figures, wars from Vietnam to Iraq, corporate changes toughened her in her during her vast career. She is now interviewing Tom Cruise' character, a young senator who thinks he has found the perfect plan (yet again) to put a stop to the conflicts in Afghanistan and to start rebuilding it in a democratic manner.
What do all these characters have in common? Besides having to making choices whether personal, professional or political. We get to know two American soldiers engaged in the Afghan war. Former students of the professor they have joined the US Army and find themselves to be pawn's in a senator's plan to end a confusing war.
The story is complex and it follows these 6 characters for more than an actual hour. The director manages to show us a reporter interviewing a young senator in Washington DC while on the West coast a teacher is trying to show a different perspective on school and not only to one of his promising but lazy students. We get to see bits and pieces from two very different but very interesting conversations and from time to time we are offered pills of action. While 4 people are talking freely, 2 other ones, thousands of miles away, are fighting for, among other things, the freedom of talking freely.
This movie is about making a choice. It's about American society, its students and politics. It's about a war. It's about getting answers to some simple questions. Each of us will find our own answer. There is no clear conclusion at the end. What will each character do? Who is a hero and who isn't? Watch this movie and get your answers.
Favorite quote: "I am not running for president"
Sunday, December 9, 2007
What is Google Adwords?
While I was trying to find ways of promoting my blog through the web, I became aware of the possibility of advertising it. Placing banners, ads, text links, smaller or bigger will increase my traffic and get me closer to the 1 million visitors I am aiming for.
If you are too looking for a way of increasing traffic to your website, then you might consider Google Adwords. Another tool Google has to offer. Again all you need is a Google account. Actually you only need an account to manage all these tools: blogspot, gmail, adwords, analytics and so many more tools can be accessed and managed with one username and password.
What has Google Adwords to offer? Better traffic? Better ad position? Higher conversion rates for whatever you are selling?
Google is one of the top internet search engine if not the best search engine. Everyone of us googles something. Searching for information, products, weather, you name it and Google finds it for you in most of the cases. Whatever you would type in GGoogle's search box, it will find something up for you and it will prompt you with search results. You might have noticed how, sometimes, on the right side of the screen there are special search results. Sponsored links. These are Google Adwords.
So if you want to properly promote your products via Google, you might consider Google Adwords for advertising. Once signed in you are in charge of your advertising campaign.
Choose what kind of campaign you will be going for: keyword or placement oriented. Then the message you want displayed and you will have your first campaign. Along with it you will have lots of features to monitor, interpret and improve your ads rating.
Get the most traffic for the better price. This tool, unlike Analytics, has certain monthly fees you will be paying. Choose your daily budget. Whether you are paying by clicks or by the number of impressions, Google will set up a campaign for you. Then make changes accordingly to increase sales or, if you want to meet your 1 million visitors quota!:))
Now you know a little more about Google, Google Analytics and Google Adwords. I will try to use all these resources conveniently located to my disposal to increase, monitor and manage my blogs' traffic in order to get the 1 million visitors I want by the 1oth of October 2008. Find out more about how I think I can do it and learn along the way some useful things.
What is Google Analytics?
Unless I make 1 million friends in 365 days who will check out my blog, I am not likely to get that number without any kind of advertising.
But before I can concentrate on any advertising campaign I will need to properly monitor the stats of this blog. Who is visiting, where they are coming from, why did they land on this particular page.
One of Google's tools is Google Analytics. All you need is signing up for a Google account. Then follow this link and submit your site(s) and blog(s). You will be able to view detailed reports about your daily visitors.
See who checked out your site. Where country are they coming from, what browser are they using? Are they a new vs a returning visitor? How many pages have they viewed and for how long?
More importantly, how did that visitor get here in the first place? Why are you even reading this lines? Where did you find a link directing you here? Find out what are the sources for your web site's traffic. What were you searching for? Google Analytics tells you what visitors searched for, what keywords directed them to your site, wht other sites reffered your site to them, what search engines where used and so on.
Further more if you are also combining one other Google tool like Google Adwords, Google Analytics will show you how your campaigns are doing and how well your chosen keywords are doing. But more about Google Adwords in one of my next posts.
Getting back to Google Analytics, you will be able to check out the content of your site. See for yourself how visitors find your content and what paths have they used to get there. Use all the features and available option to improve your landing pages and monitor your conversion goals if you have any.
Google Analytics is definitely a tool to use if you plan to monitor your site's success. Whether you are doing it for fun, or you are managing an online business Google Analytics can be a valuable resource for the long run.
Two Months Gone Already
It's been more than 50 days since my last post on this blog. I haven't forgotten it and I haven't given up my goal of reaching 1,000,000 unique visitors in 365 days or so.
I am now behind, or better said I am almost exactly where I was when I started this blog over two months ago. Why is that? Here are the latest stats from Google Analytics:
So basically I still need 999,937 more unique visitors to reach the million. Sounds easy, right?
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