Entries Tagged 'Blogging' ↓

Since its the holiday season I’ve been doing a lot of thinking as to how I could help out those in need by doing something for charity. Well last weekend I came across this site via Jonathon’s blog and I’ve decided to try something out.

Basically, the concept behind ThousandDollarProject is that every 1000 hours the owner gives away $1000 to participants of the blog along with other great prizes as well. So far it’s getting some pretty nice traffic because of this and I believe it’s currently seeing about 4000 unique visitors daily and its growing pretty fast. In addition to the general concept the owner is also running another contest to try and raise $5000 for charity over the next 30 days. Basically you can pay $17 and choose your own subdomain on the ThousandDollarProject site and you get wordpress installed on the subdomain. You can use this blog anyway that you want as long as you don’t violate any of the content guidelines that are listed. The best part about this is that most of the $17 that you pay goes to charity, so in my opinion it’s really a win win situation.

So Here is What I Decided to Do….
I chose the subdomain DailyDeals and I plan to post 2 daily product deals per day from now up through the end of December. At the end of December any revenue that I generate from this I plan on giving 50% of that to charities here in the Kansas City area. At this point I’m not sure how successful this will be but I want to try and do something to help others out during the holiday season. So if you get a chance check out DailyDeals and help spread the word! I’m going to try and give a status update about the progress of this during the month of December so we’ll see what happens.

As you may or may not know, I’m a big fan and an avid reader of SEOmoz. They consistently put out quality content on a daily basis and today they launched their annual Web 2.0 awards. Basically their entire team reviewed over 200 sites in 41 different categories and I can only imagine the time involved with that.

The one thing that I think is great about this is the vast amount of great sites I found here, that I didn’t even know existed. There are so many cool sites among their winners and I’ve listed 3 of my favorite ones so far.

• Cocktail Builder - Lets you know what kind of drinks you can make with the liquor you have around the house.
• Pandora - This is kind of cool music site, you choose what kind of music you like and let their player keep playing what you like to hear.
• Zillow - I really like this one since I’m currently in the process of looking for a house to buy. It basically gives you an idea of what the homes you are interested in should actually cost.

I haven’t had a chance to go through the entire list yet, but I highly encourage you to check them out. It was a great list and Jane Copeland from SEOmoz did a great job assembling it.

Since I’m 26 now and getting to be an old man, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my younger days lately. Now mainly what got me thinking about this is a site that came across the other day www.cpashare.com. The site is actually run by a 14 year old freshmen named Harrisson Gevirtz, who is becoming quite a successful affiliate marketer.

It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come considering at the age of 14 in 1995, I was flipping burgers at the local Dairy Queen for a whopping $4.75 an hour! The power of the web has opened so many doors for everyone of all ages and I think it has only just begun. Everyday there are more and more ways to make some good money online as long as you have the determination to reach your goals. I personally applaud anyone at any age that is using the power of the web to create a better life for themselves. It is true what they they say, “Work Smarter, Not Harder” when it comes to making money online. Now by no means is it easy, but it sure the hell is a lot better than a regular day to day job working for someone else.

I only wish this online revolution would have happened a little earlier in my life. If it would’ve it would have prevented countless nights I spent during my teenage years slaving over a hot grill.

So it looks like Anthony tagged me with his post on “Why Do I Blog”. Actually this is a really good question that I’ve thought about myself from time to time since I started this blog last December.

Well over the last few years I really started getting into web design as something that I found really interesting and enjoyable to do. I think I designed my first website with FrontPage around 7 years ago and lets just say that I hope a cached version of it never surfaces on the web again. Needless to say my design skills have gotten much better, but I still have a long ways to go.

Continue reading →

My blog is still fairly new and I’m stilling trying to reach more readers and generate more traffic.  A new site has been launched called Introduce My Blog that allows you to register and post your own entry as to what makes you blog unique and why users should read it.  I think this is another great way for you to try and reach a broader audience of readers for anyone that is a new blogger.  

Readers then can comment and even rate your post about your blog to offer advice and help on your blog.   So if you get a chance go sign up at Introduce My Blog and give a write up on you blog and be sure to post comments on other’s entries as well, because this is great way of building a community of readers for you blog.

I spend a lot of time reading blogs everyday, because there is so much great information out there.  I read roughly around 25 different blogs on a daily basis and they are all pretty much centered around seo, search marketing, web design, website monetization, and technology in general.  I do read some of other stuff not related to these, but probably 90% of what I read is about these areas.

So I decided to pick out 5 of my favorite blogs from this group and briefly discuss them, because I feel the information that they have shared has helped me out a great deal with my endeavors online.  So here is the list of my favorites in no particular order.

ClarkeW’s 5 Favorite Blogs

Shoemoney
I came across Jeremy Schoemaker’s blog early last summer and instantly became a daily reader.  He provides great insights into the world of search marketing, branding yourself, and how to monetize your sites online.  In addition to that his online radio show NetIncome is great and I’ve picked up a ton of information and tips from it as well. 

SEOBOOK
Aaron Wall’s personal blog on SEO that I first came across after purchasing his SEOBOOK a couple of years ago which I highly recommend.  The thing that I enjoy most about his writing is the way he takes SEO and relates it to other aspects of the marketing both online and offline.  Sometimes after reading some of his posts, I find myself looking at certain aspects of SEO, blogging, marketing, and business in general alot differently than I once had.

SEOMOZ
Rand Fishkin’s company blog about internet marketing and SEO.  There are several contributors on this blog and everyone has their own particular style of writing which is great.  In addition to offering great information and insights on internet marketing and SEO they also offer alot of great knowledge on social media  Recently they just launched their new site and I’m a big fan of it as it has several great features to encourage user involvement and they also offer some great free tools available on their site as well.

Pearsonified
I don’t remember how I actually stumbled across Chris Pearson’s blog, but the day I did I believe I spent about 3 hours reading through almost all of his posts on his site.  His blog consists of topics ranging from design, blogging, seo, and several other aspects on life as well.   Great website design is probably what he is known best for and I’m a big fan of his design work as well.  One of the aspects I like most about his blog is that I find his writing to be very inspiring and here is one of my favorite posts on his site - How to Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye.

Problogger
Problogger is Darren Rowse’s blog about helping bloggers make money online.  This is another site that I’ve learned a ton of information from in regards to blog monetization, affiliate marketing, content writing, and so many more topics as well.  To be honest I am amazed at all of the unique quality content he is able to create on a pretty much daily basis. 

So there are my five favorite blogs that I enjoy reading each day.  If you don’t already read them I highly recommend it because they definitely have a wealth of great information to offer.