Blogging my life away, Traffic Building

I received an email from Aaron of Utah Outings asking me for advice on promoting his site.

I am looking for advice to promote my site. Any and all information would be
much appreciated as I am not as geeky as you. I bow to your geekness and look
forward to your response.

I’m sorry it took a while for me to answer but I’m so flattered I thought it deserved a blog post in my ass-vice category even though it’s actually solicited advice, so here goes:

1. Attention grabbing titles and Content – Not every post needs an exciting title, but if you had a choice between “my boring day” or “George Carlin turned us into necrophiliacs” which would you choose? Whether your posts are funny, informative or a combination it’s up to you and the boundaries of your blog scope, the important thing is consistency and keeping the interest. Some people don’t want to offend so they stay away from dicey topics others love a good debate and jump in the fire with both feet. If you’re trying to sell a product or service, I’d really recommend staying away from politics and religion. Get more tips on blog writing from Blog Bloke.

2. Timing is everything – Obviously if you blog about the news the ideal would be to be right on top of it when the news breaks. What many people don’t know is that Monday and Tuesday are the best bloggy days and it’s best to get your more important posts out in time for the lunch crowd readers. If you’re on the west coast keep in mind that the east coast lunch crowd is three hours ahead. Also somethings are seasonal. I wrote a post in September about my experience with Sears Portrait Studio and the hots for that post spiked in mid November / early December. I’m guessing from people that get family Christmas pictures done.

3. Links and Comments – If you’re getting information from other bloggers link to them in your posts! Leave post-appropriate comments on various blogs whether they’re competitors or possible customers. It’s fine to add your url in the appropriate url space on the comment form and it’s even ok if the url you leave is to a specific post but don’t use the comment space to advertise your product or your blog it’s rude and tacky. Also make sure to remove “nofollow” from your blog so that you may spread link luv to your commenters. To spread even more link luv wordpress users can use the commentluv plugin.

4. Bloggy and Social networking sites – Examples of these would be Entrecard, MyBlogLog, Technorati, Twitter, and StumbleUpon.

I tried Entrecard and got a ton of hits but it was time consuming to stop by enough blogs and dropping cards to buy points in order to advertise my blog. Also, the hits I got were just drive by card droppings. No one lingered long enough to comment, or even read the first post. Sure, I may have picked up a reader or two out of the thousands that did the equivalent of a drive by shooting.  I wanted a little more meaning in the relationship than pure numbers so I moved on.

Mybloglog was great until Yahoo bought it up. It was nice to see the faces and pictures of people that stopped by on the widget they provide and it was easy to select other blogs to follow, but Yahoo ruined it for me. I started getting spam on mybloglog profile page and I have an unreasonable general hatred towards Yahoo.

Technorati is another site that I quit. It’s wildly popular but anytime I wanted to make changes their site took forever to load and I kept getting error pages. It was incredible annoying and the only time I received traffic from them was when I closed my account, not terribly useful.

I now use StubleUpon and finally broke down and joined the Twitter crowd. StubleUpon can drive crazy amounts of traffic to you if you know how to use it. The important thing to know about StumbleUpon is that you must be very liberal with your thumbs up and thumbs down and that your ratings will carry much more weight if you also review the page. When reviewing a blog click on the individual post not the site itself that way if the blogger creates another review worthy post you can give them another thumbs up. You can use Stumbleupon to review your own posts too, but don’t do it to every post and make sure to review many other sites in between touting your own stuff.

Twitter isn’t a big traffic driver but I suspect that will change if I can drive up my number of followers. I’m very new to twitter. One thing that helps for Wordpress users is a Twitter plugin called Twitter Tools.

5. Memes – These are a lot of fun. Most of them are weekly games, but you don’t have to play every week. Don’t make it a chore, and if you participate, try to keep the meme within the scope of your blog.

Blog Bloke gives a great overview for building blog traffic. In the middle of that post is a heading, “How TO Drive More Traffic to Your Site”. “Bloke’s Tips for a Successful Blog” Part I and Part II are also very useful and I highly recommend them.

It’s not right to force underage girls to marry, however that doesn’t go hand in hand with polygamy any more than abuse is the accepted norm for Catholics who don’t believe in divorce. Utah wasn’t made a state until the Mormon Church officially swore off polygamy. How can the United States claim freedom of religion?

Flash Fiction Friday is hosted by g-man. You may also visit Flash Fiction Friday 55’s, a blog dedicated to hosting 55 Flash Fiction Friday posts.

On Black Friday Kurt and I went out to run some errands one of which was to grab some lunch. We didn’t want to drive far to get something to eat, so our choices were limited. After running through the list and not hearing anything that really struck a chord, Kurt jokingly suggested McDonald’s. “The McRib is back on the menu.” He said in mock cheer. Kurt, as with most people that know me at all fully would expect one of my famous sneers which very clearly convey, “What are you fucking retarded?” That’s not what he got.

I avoid chain restaurants especially ones that have a drive-thru. That doesn’t mean I never get dragged to them or even that I don’t go voluntarily on occasion. I just avoid them. Thanks to their attempts at trying to offer healthy options, I can usually find something to pick at. I sheepishly told Kurt that I actually like the McRib. I know it’s something that most people only confess to their priests, rabbis, or other equivalent. It’s my deep dark secret. I like the McRib, and I ordered one with extra pickles. Apparently, their idea of extra pickles and my idea of extra pickles don’t match up. I think I need to go back and order the way I used to, “I want a cheese burger with extra pickles. No, scratch that. I want a pickle burger with a meat patty and cheese. Yes, I want everything on it. And don’t forget the pickles.”

Sophia had a couple fries, but we brought with us a banana and some bread for her. She can’t finish a whole banana so Kurt and I took turns taking bites of the other half. Each time I took a bite of the yellow phallic symbol Kurt would say, “That’s a girl”. I glared at him. Kurt offered me the last bite and as I leaned in, he took the banana away. “You BANANA tease!”

Most of you know I try to avoid packaged foods and buy food as close to the original natural state as possible. Well we all know there isn’t always time to cook and that fresh things spoil quickly. Sometimes we just want something quick and simple. Well my friend who is a Tastefully Simple consultant has proven that quick and simple doesn’t have to be a box of Mac and Cheese and it can still be healthy.

I have tried, and highly recommend the Savory Wheat Beer Bread Mix. Don’t worry you don’t have to use beer. The beer bread can be made with any carbonated beverage, and that’s all you need. One 12 ounce carbonated beverage mixed one pack of beer bread mix, pop it in the oven and in an hour, you’ll have awesome bread. My first batch I mixed with a can of 7-up and it had the light citrus taste of 7-up, which may sound a little odd, but it was very good. Make bread with a can of soda? That doesn’t sound natural, how does it work? Beer bread is a quick bread and uses baking soda (listed as sodium bicarbonate on the ingredients list) along with the carbonation in the beverage of choice to make the bread rise.

I’ve also used the Spinach & Herb Dip Mix, which makes a fine potato topper as well as a dip. I’ve used the Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce to add a new zing to baked chicken. All of the Tastefully Simple products have the complete list of ingredients on the website. Their website also contains several recipes for each product and recipe books. All of the recipes have short two or three ingredient lists with things many people commonly have on hand.

If you’re like me and try to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, many of their products don’t have it. I haven’t checked them all, but many including the three I listed don’t (unless you make your beer bread with 7-up or other beverage containing high fructose syrup).

A message from Sarah:

Save 20% on select gifts while supplies last … and simplify your holiday shopping! Featuring everything from gorgeous serving ware to delicious foods, Tastefully Simple’s gifts are elegant and ready to give. Plus, you can ship them directly to anyone on your list! To place your order today, simply reply to this email or give me a call. And remember – you can also find delicious baking recipes, holiday entertaining ideas and much more at Tastefully Simple.

We also have the Sangria Slush for sale right now while supplies last. It was a big hit over the summer and a great idea for your upcoming celebrations. It is yummy straight from the fridge, or as a slushy. What’s more, we have a special gift available to you between December 1st and the 31st. If you place an order over $60 (before shipping), you can get an English Toffee Mocha Mix for free ($9.99 value). In order to get it, you’d have to place the order through me by calling or e-mailing, not online.

If you are ordering anything that you need by Christmas, be sure to order by the 9th to give it plenty of time to arrive.

Happy holidays!

By clicking on the Tastefully Simple links you should arrive at Sarah’s consultant page with her shining face and contact info at the top. If you don’t and would like to place an order through her, please send me an email.

My parents came over for Thanksgiving and brought me an early birthday present along with our Christmas presents. As I unwrapped my birthday gift which was rectangular and about the size of a box that would house a bottle of wine perfectly my dad said, “This is something that will help cure what ales you.” Because of the size and shape of the box I said, “Awesome!” I thought I was in fact getting some wine. I’m not any sort of wine aficionado by any stretch of even the wildest imagination. Before going wine tasting with a couple friends I regarded wine equal to rotten grapes, which is something to throw out. They introduced me to late harvest wine and his much more attractive cousin Ice wine. Fully opened the present clearly wasn’t wine. I was given a bottle of Anti Monkey Butt powder, which is an athlete’s foot/jock itch/anything that itches due to sweat powder. I guess iron butt motorcyclists call their particular aliment monkey butt. That’s also what we lovingly call Sophia. I wonder, if I sprinkle a bit on her will she disappear for a couple hours?

Sophia enjoyed her unwrapped gift immensely! It’s probably the most gaudy and hideously Pepto-Bismol pink piece of furniture I’ve ever seen in my life, but the child loves her Dora the Explorer fold out couch. She spent all day today climbing on, off and all over the thing.

I try not to point out what she’s not eating or say, “You’re so skinny, why you no eat?” I try staying positive, “That’s really yummy, isn’t it?” She finally eats something other than bread, Cheerios, and cheese. After offering sliced zucchini omelet for a week, she finally tried it, and ate the whole thing.

Stuffing or in this case dressing is the real crown jewel of Thanksgiving. You can keep your turkey for all I care. Dressing is where it’s at! What’s the difference between stuffing and dressing? Stuffing is cooked in the bird and dressing isn’t.

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (can substitute with olive oil)
• 1 pound bread cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 large apple
• 1 medium onion
• 2 ribs celery
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth (about 1 1/2 small cans)
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons turkey or chicken pan drippings or melted butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a shallow 3-quart casserole.

Lay bread pieces in a single layer on 1 or 2 baking sheets. Bake until slightly dry and crisp, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool.

Core, and chop the apple, onion, celery, apricots, and parsley.

Melt the 6 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apple, onion, celery, apricots, cranberries, thyme, and salt; cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and parsley and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg in a large bowl, and add the toasted bread, and the onion, celery, fruit mixture; toss until evenly moistened. Loosely pack the dressing into the prepared pan. Bake, uncovered, until the top is crusty, about 40 minutes. Add pan drippings or melted butter over the top. Cook until the top is crisp and golden, about 20 minutes more.

This month’s Baby Squeezins is brought to you by, “Got Milk?” At the Sophia’s one year check up we were given our regular hand out from the doctor that lets us know what to expect and how to proceed with Sophia’s development. One of the bullet points was that we could wean her onto whole milk if I was going to stop or limit breastfeeding. We tried giving Sophia straight whole milk. She, in true Sophia form, didn’t like it so we mixed it with formula since I don’t have any spare breast milk. We started with three ounces of formula with one ounce of whole milk to each bottle for a week, and then went to half formula and half whole milk.

I don’t remember if it was on the doctor’s papers or another place that I read switching to whole milk can cause temporary constipation until the body gets used to it. Well for Sophia it caused Post’s rejected breakfast cereal, Stinky Pebbles. She also had her first two real diaper rashes this month. Her little tokhes^* looked like the Japanese flag. Both of the rashes cleared up in two or three days thanks to Lansinoh. No, I didn’t take a picture of that, but you will get to see a very stinky pebble. Taken on the 19th of November with my Nikon D60 for your high-resolution pleasure, I now present to you the little nugget of a Baby Squeezins, the Diaper of the Month.

^*Yiddish for butt

Kurt: How did you remember about the pumpkin?

Erica: Huh? What pumpkin?

Kurt: On your blog.

I was still confused.

Kurt: The pumpkin carving, I just read about that.

Erica: OH! You didn’t remember that?

Kurt: No, I read your blog post and got to the part about, “we can’t show each other till weren’t done.” And I thought, that really does sound like me, so I kept reading. When you got to the part about turning the pumpkins around at the same time, I thought,

[Kurt raised his fists to the side of his head and made them tremble excitedly side to side as he said the next line.]

Kurt: “oh my gosh, I wonder what I carved.”

Erica: Are you kidding me? You really didn’t remember? Do you remember carving “Kurtie [hearts] Erica” on the metal railing at Grand Coulee Damn?

Kurt: I defiled government property?