Driving traffic to your blog

Is not really easy if you do not join any forums, blogger groups or blogging platform. You seen, to drive traffic to your blog, you need to put in a lot of work.

Firstly, you need to write really good, interesting content. By this, I mean content that people want to read and not only meant for search engines. Also make sure your content is posted on a regular basis so that your readers won't feel as if you had abandoned your blog or something.

Once you get your content in place, next in line is a lot more work than producing content. It is marketing your blog.

Now, marketing and promotion is the most important factor in driving traffic to your blog. Because, without spreading the word about your blog and what type of content you have in it, then it is not easy for readers to find your blog.

So, how do you market your blog?

There are several ways to do it. Let me list it out in point form:

- you tell your friends, family and anyone who'd listen to you brag about your blog. Make sure you repeat your website address often enough to get them to go into your site.

- you submit your blog to search engines and then submit to all high ranking blog directories

- you join some blogging platform like BlogRush and social networking and start blog hopping and making new blogger friends. Soon, they'd come visiting your blog often too.

- you join forums to offer expert advise and remember to add the link to your blog!

- you can also submit expertise articles to article directories for some link love.

Try these out and tell me how it turns out.

Happy blogging!

Where to get inspiration to blog

I blog on a daily basis on my various blogs (although not as often as I'd like in this blog) and sometimes, I do go blank and don't know what to blog about. It is not because I am really out of ideas but more like I had 'forgotten' most of what I planned to blog earlier.

It happens a lot. This could be due to having to keep track with so many blogs and since I write in different styles in those blogs, sometimes, my writing styles sorta gets mixed up. And sometimes, I get so overwhelmed that I don't know what I wanted to blog about. Yep, bloggers also get writers block.

One thing about blogging, we have to be consistent. I noticed that ever since I lagged behind in this blog (four months to be exact!!), traffic has slowed to almost non-existent. That is really not good.

What good is a blog if no one wants to read it, right?

So, what do I do to get started?

Here are some tips on how I get about plunking out five to six blog posts each day:

1. Browse and read other blogs for ideas but DO NOT COPY because that's plagiarism.

2. Read the news for funny ideas you can blog about

3. Draw on your own recent experience which you think is great to share with your readers

4. Check out social networking sites like stumble upon, digg, etc for the current 'hot' topics

5. Get a writing buddy / blogging buddy to help out by exchanging some ideas

6. Worse comes to worse, take part in one of those memes which is fun and also a great way to meet tonnes of other bloggers (and add traffic to your site!)

Best of luck getting some inspiration to blog and happy blogging!

Paid to blog!

It is indeed a wonderful way to end the year. PayPerPost just paid me $20 for by blog post last month.

I know, I know, it is not much and I have not been active in my blogging recently but hey, $20 can buy me lunch and even part of my dinner. That's not bad at all!

Other than that, I found that I do not qualify for most of the open opportunities there. Sigh...it has something to do with my rating or ranking, I think. Must be all the slow inactivity of recent times. And of course, my lack of links with other bloggers. I should really start linking with more blogs and leaving more comments and make myself known.

Err...that is if I ever find the time.

With the year drawing to an end and everyone around me pledging to a whole new list of new year's resolutions, I refuse to jump onto the bandwagon to make a resolution to read other blogs, leave comments and make more links.

I think it utterly pointless to make a list which we may not keep. Also, why a list for a year? Why not a lifetime list of things to do?

Seriously, if we have a goal or dream to achieve, is one year really enough? What about the goals of achieving true happiness, contentment and peace? Will one year be enough? Sure, short term goals such as losing the final ten pounds or getting a new haircut or giving your wardrobe a makeover could take one year.

But then, these short term goals often don't mean much. More often than not, most people who made their resolutions find themselves breaking it. So, what's the point?

Sigh. I will endeavor to visit more fellow bloggers' blogs, leave comments and link more. If only to get more traffic to my blog so that I will be able to take up more of the PPP opportunities. Considering I have Hubpages to update, job boards to check, projects to complete, a hyperactive toddler to care for and a day job to pay the bills, I'm gonna need the time travel watch Hermione Granger used in order to attend more classes...Perhaps, she won't mind lending it to me now that the whole series ended already. :-)

About Blogrush

I joined Blogrush a few weeks ago with just a vague idea of what it actually was for. Supposedly, the widget will flash recently updated blogs of similar topics with my blog which I could visit while my blog will be similarly flashed elsewhere. Or something like that.

Trust me when I wrote in my previous blog (titled 'I have an admission to make..') that despite using the internet and computers on a daily basis for my work, I am practically clueless when it comes to the nitty gritty details of blogging and URLs and all the alien sounding initials. So it is the same when I sign up for things like Blogrush, Technorati and PayPerPost.

Maybe it's because I am too lazy to read through all the explanations and whatnots - not to mention short of time since I am mostly doing this at work... but I am beginning to wonder what's the point?

It is not as if I need to generate an income from my blog (though it would be an added bonus if I do get any) . So, does Blogrush actually drive traffic to my blog? Your guess is as good as mine. Sure I can check the figures with Blogrush but figures are just that, numbers and stats. Does it really reflect the actual readers instead of those flitting past on their way to find something interesting?

Oh well, if you really want to try it out, you can click here.

Alternatively, you can just Google blogrush and you will find it.

Salute to fellow diligent bloggers

After only a mere few months of maintaining this blog (and two others elsewhere), I am already feeling the strain of ensuring I continue posting entries at least once a week. As is obvious, I have been slacking! So much so, there were hardly any entertaining or twisted ramblings to be found in the past two months or so.
Much as I want to blame Harry Potter for that, I feel that it would not be fair since it only took me a few days to finish delving into that thick fantasy world after its worldwide release last month.
Then there is the infection from that bug...seriously. I was truly, really, ill. Well, for the whole of two days. ;-)
So, it is with the utmost respect and much admiration that I extend my salute to all diligent bloggers who kept at it daily, weekly, frequently, all the time. I just do not know how you all do it! Some of you probably has less time than me but still managed to continue blogging at a regular pace, it is absolutely admirable!
What can I say? I am a total absolute slacker!
But that is because I have this annoying, irritating, insistent little voice in my head that hound me on end to work on my novel-in-progress and stop wasting time in cyberworld. Then there is that motherly voice insisting that I must spend more time with my son since I only get to spend evenings with him as I work full-time. Let's not forget the other wifely voice who stridently reminded me that I had neglected my darling husband so much so that he may soon forget what I looked like. Of course, let's not forget the teeny, wee, little voice of conscience tsk-tsking at my stealing working time to blog, lurk at other blogs and surreptitiously work on my novel-in-progress.
Then there is the very real voice of my human bosses demanding for more news articles and pronto! That's the problem with news reporting. The deadlines are horrific as it starts anew everyday and with the paper printing earlier these days, the deadlines are even earlier. So much so, I find myself munching sandwiches over my workstation for lunch instead of going out for a one-hour break from all the madness of frantic news deadlines.
So, honestly, how do other mothers who worked full-time outside the home ever do it all; keep an updated blog, keep the house sparkling clean, visit other blogs and comment appropriately and yet still have energy and time left to spend time with family and indulge in her own hobbies or interests (from gardening to writing to studying for the third Masters degree).
I am already scrambling for more time to squeeze in my novel-writing when every night after tucking my son into bed, all I want to do is collapse onto the bed and sleep.
Sigh. Can anyone find me the time-travel watch Hermione (in Harry Potter) was using to attend all the classes she took at Hogwarts?