Don’t touch my stuff.

If you have a site that has your name in it, then you have become your own brand. Names like MsDanielle, John Chow, and others have their authors as their brand.

How do you market yourself?

I’ve been on a mission to lower and lower my Technorati ranking since day one. Starting out at a gazillion and moving down to 78,237 (as of today) was hard considering how long this blog has been around. My personality has a fine home in this blog, as some of you can attest to. So, everyday I see what the blogosphere has to offer, and everyday I update this blog (once or twice) to give you an insight into me.

I can say that I’d never heard of people like Jane May or Bob (of BobMeetsWorld) until there was some buzz about them floating around. Jane May was first introduced to us via John Chow, but still then I didn’t read her blog. It was only when I saw her name popping up, did I thought, “Who is this Jane May chick I keep hearing about?” That’s when I meandered on over to her blog to see what the buzz was about.

As far as Bob goes, I think I saw his name somewhere, then I came to read his story about Google, that’s when I subscribed to his RSS feed. It was a funny story in the way he told it, but it was also a story that I could relate to. What would I do if Google banned me?

So, we brand our blogs not only with our names, but our stories, personalities, and points of view.

How do you brand your blog?

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Well, what started out as something relatively small (to me) has turned into a huge monster… The Rockin’ Girl Bloggers have spoken!

I just Googled the term Rockin’ Girl Blogger and the results are really phenomenal. What I’m going to do is make up an entire list of lady bloggers who have been nominated for this badge and link to all of them. If you want to be on the original list, grab the badge and blog about it, lastly, tag five more wonderful women bloggers. Link back to me if you wish to be included!! Then we just pay homage to all of the Rockin’ Girl Bloggers out there by re-posting the list

Let’s keep it going, shall we? Oh yeah, and in the category of boys vs. girls, the girls are kicking some serious butt!

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Blog networks are a hub of the internet community. They are a collective group of bloggers blogging about the same topics. If you want to get your Technorati ranking up, then this is a viable choice for you. Networking in this fashion generally brings in a ton of links to your blog. Others will link to you, and in turn, your backlinks will grow.

Is it for you? Blogging in a network usually means that the network administrator will bring in the advertisers, and you’ll get a cut. All you’ll have to do is write the content. If the content is compelling enough, then readers will read and the advertisers will love you. So will your readers. It’s a “one hand washes the other” type of thing going on with these networks. It’s a cycle. The admin gets the advertisers, you get the traffic to the ads, you get paid.

So, there’s a good way to make money online. Would you consider joining a network? Why?

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While still in infancy, this blog is definitely coming along nicely. So far, so good, right?

So, I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for reading my stuff. It means the most to me as a blogger, to be read. I appreciate all of the comments and feedback. I appreciate all of the emails and the kind words.

Here is my crappy at-work MS paint way of sayin’ thanks for stickin’ around

PS. I can’t count (blonde moment), this blog is actually only one month old…doh!
Not too shabby to have 93 posts in one month, though, eh?

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Just a little question that I was wondering recently. When I started blogging, I was told that there is no “LOL”. I asked what if the post made me laugh? Then what?

So, this brought me to wonder, are there any of you that write LOL or ROFL in your postings? Obviously, the answer is clear about my blog. I just did it, twice.

Another question, is it unprofessional to or in postings? It’s my personal blog and I can do whatever I want, but I wanted more opinions on it.

What do you think?

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I’ve been tagged by Sassy.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1. Tales of a Cheeky Monkey
2. Blairs Boys
3. Harmonia’s Cuppa Tea
4. Sassy
5. Roberta

Next, select five people to tag:

1. MsDanielle
2. Bloggrrl
3. Pocklock
4. Max at 2BrosBlogging

5. Sarakastic at the Fibromyalgia Experiment

Questions:

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was married to a jerk and doing a job I hated.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Hanging out with my children and my sweetie

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Freakin’ Nestle Crunch bars, they’re the devil
2. Peanut butter pretzels
3. Cheetos
4. Ice Cream
5. French Fries

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:
1. Anything by Def Leppard, Poison, Guns & Roses, or any other 80’s band
2. All songs by Journey
3. Karma Chameleon by the Culture Club
4. Angel of Death by Slayer
5. Killing is My Business by Megadeth

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Get a Chrysler 300M
2. Go shopping until I couldn’t shop anymore
3. Buy everything my kids and boyfriend ever wanted
4. Buy my mom a house and a car
5. Meet rock stars

Five bad habits:
1. Nail biting
2. Goofing off at work
3. Not paying crap on time
4. Driving fast
5. Not calling when I say I will

Five things you like doing:
1. Concerts
2. Playing with my kids
3. Blogging
4. Listening to music
5. Going to see movies

Five things you would never wear again:
1. The color orange, that should be outlawed
2. A feathered hairstyle (hello 80’s!)
3. Hi-top sneakers
4. Bright pink lipstick
5. Black lace gloves

Five favorite toys:
1. Computer
2. My new phone
3. My car (06 Elantra)
4. My camera
5. My iPod

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In our real day jobs, our managers give us pats on the back or gift cards or public recognition as a way of saying, “Great job”. We toil away 9 to 5 to somehow hear those words at least once in a while.

What about your blog?

You’ll never hear, “Good job on that posting the other day, Roberta, a fine read.” from anyone around you. (Not that your name is Roberta, too…lol) There is no verbal pat on the back or smiling manager looking over your shoulder to report on the wonderful job you’re doing.

So if no one is out there to give you that golden star for the work you’ve done on your blog, then how do you measure success?

Is it seeing that 500 gazillion readers have subscribed to your feed? Or, is it knowing that your mother isn’t your only reader? Is it mass quantities of commentators coming out of lurking status just to say hello or they liked your post?

What is the measure of success for you?

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Who am I? What do you know about me? I would imagine the answer to that is that you only know about me what I want you to know, right? But, that’s true for any blogger, no matter who you are. Darren Rowse shows a picture, but won’t let anyone in on what his wife’s name is, all we know is her name is “V”. Jonathan over at SmartWealthyRich shows a photo and tells you all about how he plays guitar, etc. MsDanielle shows us a picture or two of herself and we can get to know her through her blog (love the Friday Flashbacks…)

So, I’ve been tagged by MiriGuy
to show you who I am and tell you a little somethin’ somethin’ about myself. Unfortunately, all I have online currently are these two really crappy photos. I will share them with you, so that you can see what I look like.

These photos are dark and really crappy, so you’ve been warned:

If I hear anyone say anything about Drew Barrymore, I’ll have you know, that she looks like me…(ha!) I’m older by around three months…The pics are dark, but I imagine you get the picture,eh?

I like all things music, as I used to play guitar. I collect old and foreign money, anything pewter, dragons, wizards, and amber glass. I love to take pictures, just as long as they aren’t of me. My prized possessions include a teddy bear that I’ve had since I was about six, a colorized 1999 Walking Liberty Dollar, my InventAmerica trophy from 1986, and a wizard that my dad made me out of clay (RIP 2003). I always believe that the best things in life are free.

So, that’s me in a nutshell.

BTW, this meme was started by David Airey.

1st thing to do:
Post a short paragraph or series of photos of yourself showing the face behind your blog. If you already show a photo on your blog, then make your post more interesting by choosing a photo that’s not currently online.

2nd thing:
Include links to others that have participated. Here are the ones that have participated so far:

Gayla at Mom Gadget
Char at Essential Keystrokes
Paul at Reflections

Rob at 2Dolphins
Zep at The In-Sect

Ingo at Stixster
Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace

The Paper Bull at (oddly enough) The Paper Bull
Lisa Sabin-Wilson at Just A Girl In The World
Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com

Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home
Dennis Bjørn Petersen at Petersen Inc.

Randa Clay at Randa Clay Design
Drew McLellan at The Marketing Minute
Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival

Phil Gerbyshak at Make it Great!

Steve Woodruff at StickyFigure

Dave Olson at Live the GREAT life that you desire
Greg at Become a Remote Control SEO
Ariane Benefit at Neat Living Blog

Genesis at the At Home Mom Blog
Armen at iFFECT.NET

Mihaela Lica at Online Public Relations
Tara at Graphic Design Blog
Doris Chua at Home Office Women

Edward Mills at Evolving Times
Tony D. Clark at Success from the Nest

Jonathan-C Phillips at SmartWealthyRich
Karen at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World
Lisa Gates at intrinsic life design

Rammel Firdaus at rammelfirdaus.com
Carol at Pentimento

Adam Kayce at Monk at Work
Thomas at Technical Blogger

Tammy Lenski at I Can’t Say That!

Chris Brown at Branding & Marketing

Rory Sullivan at Hamelife
Derek Wong at Going The Wong Way
Embuck at embuck.com
Ms. Q at QMusings

Shelly Tucker at This Eclectic Life

Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized

Troy Worman at on!blog
Lilith at Lilith’s Owl Nest
Revov at REVO-OVER

Karin at Stop/Start

A link back to this post is much appreciated, to help create a more personal community!

Third thing to do:
Tag as many others as you like in your post to spread the meme.

Last, but not least:
If you link back to me here and send an email I’ll be sure to include links back to you.

I do have a question, however: Are you more drawn to bloggers by how they look? If they’re attractive, will you read more?

Oh yeah, I’m tagging Donovan at BlogThatOutside, Sassy at TheSassySoutherner, Angie at SunCoastScribe, Bob at BobMeetsWorld, and Jason at Foximus.

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This Friday’s linklovin’ goes out to some pretty cool people.

Be sure to check these out!

Carma’s Window has a great post about passion

Frenchkys has a cool post about the Irish band Vega4

2BrosBlogging has a nifty post that you may want to check out, about blogs that have a decent pageranking and low top commentators

SunCoastScribe has a funny post about her daughter chopping off her hair. My son did that once, the goofball

TheSassySoutherner is passing out some link love, too

Donovan has a useful post over at NewBlogger for spam protection

Enjoy!

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I’ve come across sites that just write pretty excellent and funny content. This alone makes me subscribe to the blog’s feed and read it all of the time. It helps when you add that nice touch of sarcasm or snarkiness, or have a fountain of useful information on your blog.

It’s all well and good and you could have the most nicely written and informative content on the planet. If no one is reading it, then what good is it?

These tips will help you along the way and are good just to know for blogging in general. Feel free to add your own!

Set yourself apart

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Set yourself apart from other bloggers out there by putting your own unique spin on the things that you care about. Writing in your own voice and injecting your unique personality into your blog goes along way. People will read you and get to know what you put in front of them.

Be personable

If you’ve taken the time to send someone an email, asking them a question or commenting on their content, then you shouldn’t go ignored. Setup the plugin comment relish for automatic emails to first time commentators. It says that you appreciate the time they’ve taken to make a comment and it shows that you care.

Be responsive

Commentators love conversation, that’s why they’ve come to your blog in the first place. They’ve seen something that they liked and they want to speak on it. If someone has commented on your page, speak up! Comment back. That will show them that there is a live person behind the scenes and you care about their opinions or appreciate their feedback. It’s not unheard of to comment on your own blog, but don’t be the first.

Start a contest

Everyone is starting a buzz right now with blog contests. So much that there is an entire blog dedicated to blog contests. If you have the extra cash, you can offer that as a prize. Or, you can offer a nice linkback to another blogger’s site. You would be surprised to see what people will do with a few minutes of their time everyday for a chance to win $100.00. That $100.00 may seem like a lot to you, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold for the links and posts you get from other bloggers. You can even get a sponsor to offer the prize and not have to come out of pocket for anything. This way you can still reap the benefits of a contest.

Group Writing Projects

I know a lot has already been said about Group Writing Projects and their impact on the blogosphere, but I’m going to tell you my thoughts on them. GWPs are very helpful if you’re a new blogger and are looking to get recognized. They usually have prizes that you get a chance to win and are centralized around a theme. Liz Strauss does her projects and has offered books and a linkback to your blog. Darren Rowse’s last GWP offered up a nice $1,001.00 prize to a random winner. I know that a lot of us don’t have that kind of money laying around, but the point of it all is to get people involved. You can’t ignore the 893 posts that his last GWP generated. It shows you the power of the project and the scope it involves.

Let people know you’re out there

You can do this by finding blogs in your own niche and commenting on them. Remember, if you don’t find anything of interest, then it’s best not to comment at all. If you’ve found a blog that really sparks your interest, email the author. We all love to hear feedback and you may give us ideas on new content. Other bloggers sometimes will not know you’re out there unless you tell them.

Join a community

I have found several friends already through MySpace and MyBlogLog. These sites can be really useful in meeting others that are interested in the same type of topics you are. You can make friends this way and throw some ideas around. Another good thing about MyBlogLog is that your mug shows up in someone else’s widget when you visit their site.

What’s your take? Talk to me in the comments and let’s spark some conversation!

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