Archive > November 2011

Book Review: Become a Blogging Ninja

Have you ever wondered how to increase blog traffic? I have, and I found just the book to help me out. Become a Blogging Ninja: Triple your Traffic with Social Media.

 

First of all I have to admit I’m not 100% finished with this book, but for good reason. I’ve been reading it through and implementing things as I go. This makes the read a little slow, but I could tell this was a good one so I wanted to share anyway. I mean just read this promo:

How do I design my blog so people can read it easily? How do I find new readers? What’s a tweet? Andhow the heck do I use this Stumble Upon toolbar thingy to help me increase my traffic?

The Blogging Ninja e-book can help:

It’s 100 pages packed with everything you ever wanted to know about how to use social media to boost
your blog traffic. From first steps to social media master, this e-book teaches you how to use Facebook,
Twitter, and Stumble Upon to reach a new audience and reel them in as readers.

Blogging Ninja doesn’t stop at social media. It includes valuable information of how to best structure
your posts, when the best times to publish posts or updates are, and how to get more traffic from search
engines. With a whole section devoted to blogging-specific SEO (search engine optimization), you’ll have
people landing on your blog from Google in no time.

Not only do you get all of this priceless information in one in e-book, you’ll get a free bonus too: a traffic
building checklist, walking you through the steps for promoting each post you write.

The Blogging Ninja e-book is available for a limited time at the introductory price of $19.99.

Are you as excited as I was from that promo? I was most excited about the SEO  section, this is something I’ve been trying to learn about for a while now bit my google searches haven’t helped. All the articles I’ve found assume you already have some base knowledge… I don’t. So I skipped right to the SEO Chapter.  I was not disappointed, she had great ideas on how to find keywords for specific post ideas as well has how to know what people are really looking for. She also included the thing I was really looking for where/how to use these SEO keywords (pg 68). Oops I guess I should stop using ‘click here” as my text when linking you to another post of mine….

There are also great chapters about the best ways to use social media to promote your blog and the best times to have your posts and tweets go live!

One of the best things I’ve read so far is how to get the most out of Google Analytics. I’ve been using it since the beginning of my blog but mostly to just review stats, I didn’t realize how much information it could give me on how to improve my blog and what my readers are looking for.

Lastly all the tips on how to format and write your posts couldn’t be better but the best advice is to keep your writing your own. If implementing any of her suggestions makes the post, sound robotic or unlike you, don’t do it.  Its easy to get caught up in the numbers and forget about the real live people reading your blog.

So if your new to blogging or just find yourself at a stalemate like me I would highly suggest this book and you can buy it by clicking on the button below.

I was given a copy of this book for free however that didn’t affect my opinions of it. The statements above a 100% my thoughts. For more questions visit my Full Disclosure page.

Back tonight.

Hey everyone this last trip knocked me off my feet. I even had to take a sick day. but I’m back now so look forward to a book review tonight!

 

Amber

My Groomsmens Dress

Yep you read that title right, I’m going to be a groomsmen!  Do you remember at the end of September I wrote about My friend B? Well I told you that he was one of Mark’s (My first husband who passed away from cancer) best friends. Well he called me a few nights ago and asked me to stand as a groomsmen representing Mark.

I’m so honored, I’m honored that we are still close enough that he wanted me there. Because even though I’m representing Mark I’m a part of the decision to. I’m honored because I know that even 4 years after Mark’s death he still means so much to B. Lastly I’m honored that is fiance agrees and is even excited for this decison.

So on to the dress, here it is in the color the bridesmaids are wearing. I will be wearing a maching color to the guys suits so blend in. But….we don’t know what color that is yet, lol. Better find out soon the wedding is in about 7 weeks!

I like it!

Husband Challenge Reminder

I’m pretty busy this week so no time for Thoughts on Thursday but I wanted to remind you about the husband challenge post coming up on Thursday November 24th! For more information click here! We did a weekly version in September but I would like to continue with this on a monthly basis with a linky party!


Green in the news #1

 

Here are just a few articles I’ve read lately with a little added commentary ;)

Today’s articles are from Do Your Part.

Baby shampoo with carsenogenics

I’m sure you’ve heard the stink recently about the Johnson and Johnson Baby Shampoo with a potentially cancer-causing chemical can be found in a popular brand of shampoo for babies. “The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says Johnson and Johnson is using a formaldehyde-releasing ingredient in the baby shampoo it sells in the United States. Quaternium-15 is a chemical preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. “

My Thoughts: I’ve got a few thoughts about this one, first off if you were truly concerned about chemicals in baby shampoo you would be using an all natural shampoo already. That being said we would like to think that the chemicals a company is using in a baby product are not ones that have been found to cause ANY adverse affects. However I will state that this Quaternium-15 was just labeled a cancer-causing chemical on June 10th 2011 by the National Toxicology Program and even if J&J stopped manufacturing immediately when this was release there would still be some of this product on the shelves. Until June they most likely (giving the benefit of the doubt) didn’t know about this. Personally just find a person in your area who makes all natural soaps and use those.

Apple is developing a solar farm!  

I don’t think this needs much more explanation than that but if you want more just click on the link.

My Thoughts:

So I guess this isn’t new, the article says they already have 3 of their facilities in Texas, California and Ireland that run 100 percent on renewable energy. I’m already and Apple-addict this just strengthens that I guess!

 First Passenger Jet using green fuel takes off!

 Since I”m heading out on my final paintball trip of the year tomorrow this one is really interesting to me. “Passengers on select United Airlines flights will be flying in eco-friendly fashion. The airliner just completed the first-ever passenger flight using fuel made from algae. The flight from Chicago to Houston used a blend of petroleum-based jet fuel and biofuel made from genetically modified algae that feeds off plant waste and produces oil. The fuel, called Solajet, is provided by renewable oil and byproducts company Solazyme. United also agreed to buy twenty million gallons of the eco-friendly jet fuel from Solazyme every year. United officials say if sustainable biofuels are produced on a large scale at an economically viable price it can one day play a meaningful role in powering everyone’s trip on an airline.”

My Thoughts:

I must not pay attention because I didn’t even know this was in the works. Let alone that Delta had already made so many low emissions efforts on the ground. I’m intrigued by this but also concerned about the price. I think in this economy many including myself would struggle to fly if there was s price hike, again.

 

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