What started out as a normal Fourth of July holiday celebration quickly turned to tragedy for Britney Spears. The queen of multi-tasking was apparently trying to light off fireworks while carrying her kid in one arm. Things quickly got out of control when the cigarette she was smoking fell out of her mouth and landed in the pile of fireworks being held by her two year old son. Britney quickly dropped her child and grabbed the pile of fireworks which started to go off in her hand. The child was unharmed but Britney suffered second degree burns and partial loss of her left pinky finger. After receiving a skin graph from her right butt cheek, Britney is expected to make a full recovery.

Gotcha! With an opening paragraph like that, you know it can only mean one thing. Time for the BuzzMyBlog Monthly Progress Report! Anyone who has been reading my blog knows I like to have a little fun with these posts (and maybe grab a little attention) before I Digg into a review of my last month of blogging. June was a busy and exciting month. Numbers were good. I had a few well-received posts, and I learned a few things along the way. Oh...and as far as I know, Britney Spears is just fine (well...as fine as Britney can be anyway).

Traffic Statistics

Numbers were up slightly from last month, but not as much as I hoped. Page Views were almost identical at 4,247. Number of visits were up from last month to 3,218 from 2,555 unique visitors. My feed subscribers fell short of my goal of 150, but were still up at 127. All in all, I am pretty happy but I will need to work harder in July to keep the upward trend.  

What I Did Well

I try to be careful not to get sucked into too many social media websites. They can be an awful distraction to your blog. Ignoring them completely however, can cause you to miss out on some great ways to promote and publicize your content. Such was the case early in June when I discovered how to really use Digg effectively. I wrote a great post on The Truth About Digg that brought in a great deal of traffic and got Dugg over 170 times. It was on its way to making it to the front page of Digg when BOOM! It got buried.

I had another great article about Optimizing AdSense to earn more money. It got Digg 92 times then suddenly also got buried.

Noticing a trend here? While Digg brought in some really good traffic for me, it also taught me a valuable lesson. Diggers hate bloggers. It is a fact of life as true as birds fly, fish swim in the ocean, and Britney is a bad mom. Diggers expect to find entertainment at Digg, bloggers try to promote themselves on Digg. This is a conflict of interest that allows Diggers to beat up on bloggers with the brutal Bury button. My post on the Truth About Digg got buried simply because it was about Digg. WTF? My article on AdSense was buried because apparently writing about AdSense is considered spam. Again, WTF? Well, at least I got some good traffic out of it. But going forward, I am going to stick with my other blog, Buzz Pirates, when it comes to submitting to Digg.

I had a couple other posts in June that got a good response from fellow bloggers. I wrote about choosing a niche to Make Money Online, warning new bloggers to stay away from the Make Money Online (MMO) niche if they want to make the most money. I also offered some valuable tips on focusing on your blog when you have limited time. Of course, the Weekly Buzz is still going strong and I met some great new friends. All in all, June was a very good month.

What I Didn't Do Well 

Remember when I said social media sites can be a big distraction? Well I learned how to use Digg effectively, but yeah...I did very little else to promote my blog. That's just not good. I didn't do any guest posts, which I was hoping to do. I also didn't comment on other blogs as much as I would have liked. I think these are the two most important things you can do to promote yourself, and I noticed a decline of regular traffic from not doing so. I will make an effort to get back to the basics for July.

Goals for July 

In May, I had a nice guest post on ProBlogger. In June, I created a little attention on Digg. My goal in July is to continue this effort and do something "outside of the box" to help promote my blog. I make it a permanent goal of mine to always try something different to earn traffic each month. Some things work better than others, but it always keeps things interesting and forces you to get creative. I encourage you to try some new ways of promoting yourself as well.

Maybe its the summer time rolling into full swing, but I have also been noticing a general decline in the Make Money Online niche. To be honest, I am pretty sick of it anyway. While I enjoy offering advice about earning money online, my blog really isn't a Make Money blog. I don't swamp you with annoying ads or pop-ups that probably could earn me some decent income. Instead, I enjoy writing quality content that hopefully helps you with your blog. My blog has become less of a money blog and more of a blogging blog. And I am happy with that.

I am going to continue with this metamorphosis in July and publish a few tutorials that will really help you improve your blog. Keep an eye out for some beginner step by step introductions to PHP, CSS, WordPress, and a lot of other topics that every blogger should know. If you have any requests, please let me know. So you don't miss a thing, sign up for my feed now!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Jeff

 

 

Here it is June 6th and I am keeping with tradition by publishing my blog's Progress Report almost a week late. Hey...at least I am being consistent! It has been one hell of a week so I apologize for being a little quiet. But its time to get back down to business. You must be wondering what the title of this post is all about. My Progress Report for the month of May is inspired by a book written by internet entrepreneur and marketing guru Seth Godin, called The Dip.

In his book, Seth explains how every new project, job, or hobby (or in my case...blog) starts out fun and exciting. You work really hard and start to get great results. Then over time it gets much harder and much less fun. When results start to decline, you need to figure out if you are in a momentary "dip" that will simply get better if you keep pushing, or if you are in a cul-de-sac which is really just a metaphor for a slow and painful death.

My blog statistics for the month of April were quite gloomy. After three months of significant growth my blog saw a sharp decline in traffic and new visitors. I was pretty bummed because up to that point, my blog had been getting a lot of visitors and a terrific response from readers. The cause of the decline was obvious - life was crazy and I had just found out my wife and I are expecting our first baby. As I wrote back then, Life Got In the Way and my blog took a back seat. As May pushed on, I had to figure out if my blog was in a dip that I could pull out of, or was it doomed for failure because I hit a dead end?

I am happy to report that my blog has pulled out of the dip! I kept pushing and made an effort to focus on quality content and productive blogging activities. As the graph below shows, page views, visits, and unique visitors were back up at 4251, 2946, and 2298 respectively. Perhaps the number that I am most proud of though, is my feed subscribers. I have crossed that magical one hundred mark and I am now up to 110 feed subscribers. To be honest, I could care less about those other numbers. As long as my feed subscribers continue to increase, I will be a happy blogger.

Pulling Out of the Dip

So how exactly did I pull out of the dip? Knowing that I had a lot of ground to cover, I put together a plan. First, I sat down and committed myself to finally finishing the theme redesign that I had been working on for weeks. I am really happy with the new look of my blog and the response has been great - thank you. With my new sharp duds, I knew it was time for the big leagues. I brought out my A-Game and spent an entire day working on a guest post that I could shop around. I went straight to the top and was ecstatic when my first pitch was a home run. I want to thank Darren Rowse at ProBlogger for publishing my guest post, which coincidentally turned out to be a light hearted look at...you guessed it, the Dip! I followed the guest post up with a couple of solid posts on the importance of tagging your articles, being aware of shady advertisers (cough...TNX...cough), and pulling your blog out of a rut. I am happy to say that my hard work paid off. My blog is back on the rise. Of course, the Weekly Buzz is still going very strong.

What I Could Improve On

The one thing that I did not do well in May was make money. But you know what? I don't really care. That is not the priority for my blog right now. I am getting a little tired of the the Make Money Online niche and the last thing I want to do is to start sounding like yet another used car salesman. I like to write and I like to help people with their blog. That is the focus of Buzz My Blog and it will continue to be the focus of Buzz My Blog. I will make money, but I am going to do it the hard way...by slowly building a strong base faithful readers over time. I don't care how long it takes, but I firmly believe that the best way to make money online is to publish genuine content that keeps people coming back for more again and again. I hope I have been able to provide this for you.

I have a lot of good stuff planned for June so I hope you will stick around. My goal is to top 150 feed subscribers (so please subscribe here!), and after my mini-rant above, let's just keep the goal at that. Please let me know what you think of Buzz My Blog so far. What would you like to see more of? Less of? Anything different? I've really enjoyed getting to know a lot of you and I look forward to meeting many more.

I am a firm believer that hard work pays off. But it is now 6:30 pm on Friday evening and time to ditch that mentality for a little of this...

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jeff

 

 

If you're a regular reader of BuzzMyBlog.com you know that each month I publish my blog's Progress Report. I highlight the progress my blog has made and discuss what worked well and what didn't over the past month. I like to have a little fun with these posts. They are written in a light hearted tone and often have humorous or downright ridiculous titles. It is just one of many ways I try to make my blog stand out in this competitive niche of Blog Improvement and Making Money Online.

If you're a regular reader you also know that I never get around to publishing the Progress Reports on time! This month is no different. It is now May 9th and this post will focus on my blog Progress Report for the month of April. However, instead of trying to make the post a little funny or entertaining, I am going to focus on a topic that is a little more serious - how to find the time to blog when life makes it very difficult to do so.

Before I even look at the numbers, I know my stats for the month of April are going to be disappointing. The month started out strong. The Weekly Buzz continued to spark a great deal of interest. I also saw a great response from the start of my ongoing six part series highlighting my Blog Monetization Strategy. Unfortunately the series is not unfolding as quickly as I would like, and for that I apologize. The second half of April something happened that caused my blog to take a back seat for the moment. Life happened.

Mrs. Buzz and I found out we are going to have our first baby!

Words cannot express the joy we feel. At this moment, I could care less about my blog statistics. All of the sudden the priorities in my life have changed. Instead of spending a few hours in the evenings working on blog posts, my time was being occupied with more important things. We had baby doctor visits, we became regulars at Barnes & Noble reading every book on child birth, we went shopping for new furniture, we redecorated the house. We were nesting. Life was happening and we were loving every minute of it.

Does this mean my blog will slowly wither away and die? Of course not! I still have a lot of great things planned for BuzzMyBlog. I just have to find a way to readjust my daily activities to make room for everything. Now that we are settling in and getting used to this life changing event, its time to get back to work. When life made it hard to find the time to blog, I just adjusted my schedule to allow time for it. I started waking up an hour earlier a few days a week. I would start the day with a cup of coffee and look at all the things on my plate for the day. I would make a list of all the things I needed to do, personally and professionally. The list would include things I needed to do for my job, further "nesting" to-do's, and of course, blog related activities. I would then prioritize the list in order of importance before attacking it, then scratch things off one by one. In this way, I was able to keep my life on track, my sanity in check, and hopefully...put my blog back on track for positive growth. 

So by now you must be wondering just how bad my April stats were. After 3 months of steady and significant growth, my blog saw a decline in page views and visitors. Page Views dropped sharply to 3569. Visits were down to 2653 and Unique visitors continued to drop to a measly 289. The single positive note was that my feed subscribers increased to 60. The overwhelming trend was this - loyal readers stuck around, but very few new ones came aboard.

I cannot blame my decline in numbers entirely on life altering events. I did spend a good amount of time in April on activities that I hope will be good for the long term growth of my blog. The following things that occupied my time may also have had an impact on my statistics:

• I spent a great deal of time redesigning my blog theme. I am really happy with the results. Thank you all for your feedback.
• I pretty much dropped all EntreCard activity all together. On my daily list of things to do, dropping EntreCards was definitely not a priority. It is my hope that a large percentage of my drop in traffic was useless EntreCard traffic anyway.
• I actually started another blog! Don't worry, it won't compete with BuzzMyBlog. This blog will be pure entertainment. Stick around for my official announcement in the next week or so. I am sure you will enjoy it!

As you can see, I have been quite busy. As I discussed earlier, I just had to learn how to adjust my schedule to make it possible. I am not bummed at all about my declined statistics. I know its just a momentary blip. I am very confident that May will be a great month! My blog design changes have helped already. The Weekly Buzz will continue strong. Also, look for a guest post from me on a very big name blog. I am very excited. I hope you stick around.

Jeff

 

Vanilla Ice was arrested last night after an argument with his wife turned violent shortly after the conclusion of the American Idol. Inside sources say Vanilla, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, was angered over the surprise elimination of Michael Johns from America Idol, and took his frustrations out on his wife Laura.

Is this true? Well yes...he was arrested. Was it because of American Idol? Who knows...maybe? But with a title like this, you know it can only mean one thing. Time for my long overdue Monthly Progress Report for March!

March was a very exciting month for me, but like most blogs, it had its ups and downs. My blog saw exciting growth early on fueled by some very popular posts about the future of EntreCard and Graham Langdon's personal response. My blog also benefited from a very popular Ask A Pro post that saw responses from people like Maki at Dosh Dosh, Zac Johnson, Darren at Problogger, and Shoemoney. The month wrapped up with a huge response to a special Weekly Buzz give away that awarded the winner 200 guaranteed visitors through a focused StumbleUpon campaign. Congratulations to Tom at TechnoGumption.com for being the winner. I hear the campaign worked out very well for him. 

My blog also had a few disappointments in March. I tried to promote my first affiliate product and didn't make a cent. I need to continue to learn more about earning affiliate commissions. I will be sure to share anything I discover (let us know if you have any tips!). I also tried offering a Contest Winner Picker tool that I thought would have more interest. No one seemed to care. Oh well. I had a few technical difficulties with my feed that I think really affected my traffic. Finally, and perhaps worst of all, I joined Twitter. Talk about a distraction from your blog! It is so much easier to type 140 characters than an entire blog post. I have to make a serious effort to focus on my blog first, then Twitter. My blog has suffered the last week or two because of it.

All things considered, I am pretty happy with my statistics for the month of March. The number of visits nearly doubled while my monthly page views rose to 5563. These numbers aren't stellar, but as I have said before, I would rather have slow and steady growth of faithful readers instead of hordes of useless traffic. The percentage of new visitors to my blog was a ghastly 14.48%. That is completely evident in the severe drop of Unique Visitors. Most of my traffic was from returning visitors! That is good, I suppose. But I need to do a lot more to attract new readers. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I need to break out of the EntreCard and StumbleUpon rut. That is where all my traffic comes from and it is the same people. I think a kick-ass guest post somewhere hot is in order for April. As for money, I made a whopping $11.30 from Google Adsense. Finally, I am happy to have crossed the 50 subscriber threshold for my feed.

I have some MAJOR goals for April, even though the month is half over. First, I need to use Twitter for good instead of evil. If I focus on my blog first and work hard at some good content, I can use it to promote my blog - instead of neglect my blog, which I feel has happened lately. I will also focus more on Monetizing my blog in April. I started using AdSense again in March but only made a few bucks. That will continue to improve. I have been working on a slight redesign of my blog that will make it more "monetization friendly". Among other things, I will begin to offer private ads. I will continue to learn more about earning some affiliate commisions as well, and will be sure to share with you anything I learn. Finally, I will continue to spotlight some great blogs as part of the Weekly Buzz feature. Look for another special give away in April. So stick around...there are still a lot of exciting things yet to come here at BuzzMyBlog.com!

Cheers,
Jeff

ps - I case anyone was wondering...I am not British but I do think "Cheers" is a great closing! Especially because I am about 3 hours away from grabbing a beer! Have a great weekend.

 

Psych! This post just my monthly Progress Report for February. (that's right...I'm bringing "psych" back). I guess its a good thing that my progress report is a few days late. I was able to realize that every other blog on earth is now doing a monthly "stat brag". Normally, I'd bag the whole post all together to avoid the risk of being branded as another knock-off blog. But I can't. Along with the Weekly Buzz, the Monthly Progress reports are an important part of my blog. Its how I give back to my readers - how I let fellow newbies know what worked, what didn't, and the important lessons I learned along the way. In order to stand out among the other blogs, I guess I'll just have to make mine a little more light-hearted. Besides...who doesn't enjoy a good Britney joke? (Ok...maybe that's not so original after all)

How About Those Stats!

What can I say other than WOW! I rock! Yeah, yeah...I still have quite a ways to go to catch Shoemoney (or even his dog Baxter probably). But still, I went from 100 unique visitors in January to 1,927 in February! That is an increase of 1,827%. Amazing! (the growth, not the final number). 4073 page views and 2623 visits are not really numbers to do cartwheels over, but an increase of 251% and 329% respectively from the prior month is worth at least a somersault or two. And here is the amazing part. I had one decent post the first week of February, then went away for a whole week. The majority of these number are from traffic I received in the last two weeks of February!! Not bad, huh?

What I Did Well

So what can I attribute those fantastic two weeks to? It was a little bit of luck followed by a lot of hard work to capitalize on that luck. I was lucky enough to have a guest post published on JohnCow.com. Unfortunately, it went live the same day I was stranded in Chicago's Midway airport. "Oh know!", I thought. "I haven't updated my blog in a whole week. All that traffic will be for nothing!". So I quickly got to work writing some quality content. My next three posts then got some tremendous feedback.

• 2 Simple Tips for Getting the Most Out of Google Adsense
• The Single Greatest Way To Get a Whirlwind of Traffic
• Finding Your Place In a Crowded Blog Niche

These posts saw a lot of traffic and received a good number of comments. Google stats were high. I was pumped. I rode that wave into the long awaited launch of the Weekly Buzz - an exclusive feature of BuzzMyBlog that selects an up and coming blog to spotlight and gives the owner 500 EntreCard credits to promote it. I then started a heated discussion about the future of EntreCard, to which Graham Langdon himself - EntreCard's founder - personally replied with some enlightening words. It was an exciting two weeks indeed.

What I Did Not Do Well

Yes, it was an exciting month. I saw a lot more traffic to my blog and met a lot of new people. But there is always room for improvement. The one thing that I did not do very well was increase the number of subscribers to my feed. I had set a goal for myself last month to get 50 readers. I fell a bit short here and only got 34. To be fair, some users have reported a problem with my feed publishing duplicate posts. Let me know if this happens to you (yes...I am making excuses). I need to do a better job of promoting my feed.

You know what else I totally sucked at? Making money. That is the real goal after all, isn't it? I did not make any money from my blog in February. But I did not really try to either. My plan all along was to build my readership base, then try to monetize. Now that I've got a good base, I think I'll try some techniques for monetizing in March. Don't worry...I fully intend to maintain the integrity of my blog. BuzzMyBlog will never become one of those annoying sites with enough ads to drive you crazy. But keep your eyes out for some design improvements in March to make my blog more appealing to the eye (and to the advertiser). I am curious what you think about the layout of BuzzMyBlog. What do you think could be improved?

Important Lessons I Learned

I have heard a number of times that "Content Is Not King - Marketing Is". I think that is total bullshit. What can you possibly market if you don't have any decent content? I had a little bit of luck in February with the guest post, but I truly worked hard to capitalize on the opportunity I was given. If you are ever given a lucky break, don't take it for granted. Capitalize on it the best you can, even if that means you have to work harder. It will be worth it.

Goals for March

There is no question that I will be looking to continue this growth streak into March. I have some exciting posts planned that I hope will generate some good Buzz. I will be very happy if I can at least double my February numbers and reach 8000 page views, 5000 visits, and 4000 unique visitors. I will be very disappointed if I don't get at least 50 subscribers to my feed (so make sure you subscribe!). Finally, I hope the end of March will see a few dollars rolling in - though I think I'll leave the financial goals for April. :-)

As a final note, I want to thank all the new friends I made this past month for visiting my blog and participating in the discussions. It was nice to meet you all and I hope to continue to see you here at BuzzMyBlog.com.

I will be giving away another 500 EntreCard credits on Monday so if you haven't signed up for the Weekly Buzz, do it now! If you have, remember you can get more chances to win by referring other bloggers.

I am delirious. I need some sleep.

Good night,

Jeff

 

I think I'll crack open a beer. We've made some great progress since our first progress report in the beginning of January. I don't have any huge milestones to write about, but the progress I've made the past few weeks is certainly worthy of a can of Miller Lite at least. I've made a few new friends; seen a good increase in the number of visitors; I have some regular readers (hey...a few is a good start!); and I've even been fortunate to benefit from the illustrious "Digg Effect". Most importantly, however, I think my blog is starting to develop its persona. I am finding my voice, my message is becoming clear, and my readers are starting to learn why my blog is a lot more than your typical "Make Money Online" blog. Now, if I can only figure out a way to make that immediately clear to first time visitors. More about that later. For now, how about some stats?

In only a few weeks I have jumped from 284 to 1,159 page views. The number of unique visitors to my site has jumped from 25 to over one hundred (101 to be exact). In the last two weeks especially, the number of visitors to my blog has averaged between 40 and 80 people a day. While these numbers are not huge, it is a big improvement over last time. Even more encouraging is the fact that my Google Analytics graphs continue to rise. I even earned a few bucks - $9.34 to be exact. But I have also learned a valuable lesson on monetizing which I will talk about later. I have 13 subscribers to my feed, which I am a little bummed about, but I know I need to market that a little harder. I am seeing slow but steady growth and as long as that continues to happen I will be happy.

What I did Well

The most important thing that I did over the past few weeks was make an effort to network with other bloggers. I have mentioned it before, and I will say it again - meeting people online and befriending other bloggers is pivotal to the success of your blog. Through those efforts I was able to publish a couple of guest posts over at JasonBoom.com and SocialMediaWorld.com. If you have an opportunity to guest post on another blog - do it! It is a great way to generate some awesome traffic, especially if the site has a lot of readers. I am still seeing some good traffic from EntreCard as well, but I am definitely not using it to its full potential. Sometimes its tough to find the time to do anything more than drop a few cards here and there. Luckily, you still see some nice traffic just by doing that. Finally, I routinely visit other blogs in my "niche" and participate in the discussion by leaving comments and providing feedback. This is a great way for other bloggers to get to know you. Just FYI...I have found Google Reader extremely helpful in organizing all of my favorite blog feeds.

What I need to Improve

I had a great email conversation the other day with Tina over at thinksimplenow.com. I was describing to her my motivation for starting this blog and she pointed out "I really like the idea. I would make my blog such that your unique idea about your blog is obvious to the visitor who doesn't have the privilege like me to have it explained to me." This caused me to go back and look at my blog with a new perspective. Oh my God! She is so right! To the first time visitor, my site appears to be nothing more than another damn "Make Money Online" site. How do I make it immediately clear to new readers that the goal for my blog is to create an interactive community where fellow bloggers can learn and discuss ways to improve their blog? That I am learning as I go, writing about my successes and failures along the way. This is something I really need to work on. Perhaps a new tag line? What else? I could really use your help on this. Drop me a comment if you have any good ideas.

Important Lessons I Learned

By far, the most important lesson I learned over the past few weeks is the right way to reach out to other people. Be sincere. Sending someone a message that says nothing more than "Nice blog. Will you add me to your blogroll" will probably guarantee that you'll never hear another word from that person - ever. Start with a few relevant comments on their blog. If they are to the point, the person will notice you and remember you. Then it will be easier to reach out to them when the time is right. If you email them, do it for a good reason ("hey I have an idea...", "I could really use some help...", etc.). If you email someone because you want to meet them, then just say so! ("hi there. I just wanted to introduce myself..."). Just be real, friendly, and if possible a helpful person. Do this and you should have no problem making friends with other bloggers.

I also learned a valuable lesson about Google AdSense. I will talk about it in much more detail in my next post. But for now, I have removed my Google Ads. They just took up too much room and I really didn't like the way it looked. What's the point if it only earns $0.32 anyway? I am going to just worry about building my audience before I even think about making any money.

Goals for Next Progress Report

How can you measure your success if you don't set goals? By the end of February, my goal is to receive over 100 visitors each day every day. I would also like to have at least 50 people subscribed to my feed. These are pretty modest goals and I think they are definitely achievable. If I make the effort to clarify my message, as I described above, I hope to keep more first time visitors. I also want to get to know my readers much better. Seriously - give me a shout down in the comments and let me know who you are! I will also be introducing a few new features this month to promote the community feel of Buzz My Blog. So please stay tuned and check back often.

Cheers!

Jeff

Its been about 10 days since I first started my blog, so I wanted to share with you my first progress report. For those of you following me on this journey toward a successful and profitable blog, I will describe some things that worked well, other things that didn't work at all, and some general lessons learned. For those of you not following along, or already have more experience blogging, please leave some comments to enlighten some of us newbies with your valuable knowledge!

This is the first of many regular progress reports. As this blog grows, I hope these reports will become more and more impressive. Be sure to check back often to see how I am doing and follow along. I hope your blog can benefit from some of these lessons learned!

General Progress

In the first 10 days I've had 284 page views in 62 visits from 25 unique visitors. All in all, its not too impressive (ok, it sucks). To date, I have earned $0.00 - which isn't too surprising because I haven't put up many advertisements yet. I am actually researching ad services now. Leave me a comment and let me know what you use (especially if its anything other than Google Ads).

What I Did Well

The most important thing to remember when writing a blog is that your content must be real. Yes, there are people out there that make a lot of money without the greatest content. That's just tough to do when first starting out or without resorting to unethical way of generating traffic. If you have a new blog, the best thing you can do is just take the time and make sure you have good, relevant, and interesting posts. Anyway, that is what I tried to focus on initially (hopefully some of you find my content decent!). After a new post, I always make use of a ping service like Ping-o-matic. This service will ping all the top blog indexes and search services, notifying them that you have new content. I also started checking out some fellow bloggers that discuss similar topics. I tried leaving comments on their sites and even gave a review to Carl "the Kidblogger" Ocab. So far, pretty much all of my traffic has come from using the ping services and comments from other blogs.

What I Didn't Do Well

I definitely got off to a slow start. That is my fault - I started this blog while on vacation! I noticed definite spikes in my traffic on days that I had a new post. I need to make an effort to post more regularly. I also tried signing up for blog syndications services like BlogRush and BlogFlux. I should have waited longer - I got denied because I had too little content. I am also probably not doing enough to "get involved" in my blog community. I am going to make an effort to contribute and become known to other blogs that have similar content. That is the best way to get your name out there and give people a way to find your blog.

Important Lessons

I think the biggest lesson I learned is how important it is to become an active member of your blogging community. Its not easy, but you have to get your name out there if you want people to find your blog. The best way to do that when first starting out is to comment a lot on other people's blogs and to give them a little respect in some of your posts. Hopefully they will return the favor and link back to you. A direct link from a high profile blogger is priceless!

My goal for the next progress report will be to drastically increase my traffic, attract some regular readers, and start earning some cash! (even if its only a few cents). Please leave me some comments and let me know how I'm doing so far. What was your first few weeks like? Any advice or suggestions are welcomed!

Jeff