New weekly Blog Review

I am starting a new weekly segment

I run around the internet all day long. I read other peoples blogs everyday. So, I decided to start a fun segment about some of the blogs I run across. I am not looking for anything or promoting anyone really. I just want to point out good and bad things I see other people doing so that we can all learn and grow. I also find it interesting seeing what niches people have found for themselves to blog about. I will post the review on the main page but also on the Blog Review page so they can be kept for posterity.
If you would like me to review your blog, email or tweet me.

So, the first review:

=> http://plumpuddingillustration.blogspot.com/

First I love the overall look and feel of the page. It is very simple but inviting. It makes me want to scroll down and see more. The simple design accents the photography and artwork in the blog. The photography is amazing. The blog is actually an agency that represents artists. The blog does a great job with this because I didn't even realize that was what it was until I read the 'about' section. It is done in such a way that I didn't feel like I was being sold or directed to anything. So check out some interesting articles and some great artwork and photography.

Advertising experiment - Month one

My first attempt at spending $10 a month on marketing

Since I started this experiment half way through the month so I only spent $5. I spent it on Fiverr.com. I paid $5 to have a short (Twitter size) sentence with link. It was sent out on Facebook and twitter, reportedly to thousands of people. The seller does give links to confirm that the job was done. It was done on time and as promised in the ad. I had zero response. I don't blame the seller at all. I think I figured out where I went wrong. The target audience of the seller was more of an age group then people related based on anything else. If I try Fivver.com again, I will look for a more targeted audience that would be more likely to read my blog.

Check out the whole story: http://napalmgraphics.blogspot.com/p/10-day.html

Copyright part three

A short note about YouTube 

If you use YouTube to post videos I hope you read your user agreement closely. Did you know that you authorize others to post your video within specific parameters?

“You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.” (YouTube terms of service section 6C)

This also has an impact on bloggers. This means that you can post other peoples YouTube videos on your blog. You must have it linked back to the original YouTube post though. I would also ensure that you cite your source appropriately. I would be careful but you are covered by the YouTube TOS if you want to do it. 

Pocket - Review

Keep your reading organized

If you are like me, you do a lot of surfing on the internet to find ideas to write about. You also follow a fair amount of people on twitter and Facebook. I find a lot of articles that I want to read but generally don’t have the time. I wanted to share my solution with you.

I use a program called Pocket. Pocket is an amazing website that lets you save articles to be read when you have the time. It has an Android and iPhone app also. It is very simple also. First make an account. Then add their link to your bookmark bar or you can use their browser extensions. Add articles as you find them. You can also save from your phone using the "share" feature on a website or in your browser.

When you have time, waiting for an appointment, riding a train, whenever, you can read your articles. The best part is that on your mobile device, it is all saved offline so you don’t need to have internet access to read.

Pocket has a lot of options when reading an article. You can modify the layout, change the font size, or share the article to other applications. After reading you can delete the article, save it, or star it. Pocket also saves the images embedded in articles. Pocket saves the original link back to the article so you can always get back to where you found it at.

I love Pocket for keeping track of articles I want to read. I also use it to save websites that I want to review later. I spend time in the morning roaming the internet and saving articles to Pocket. Then, throughout the day I read them and determine if they might be useful to my readers. If not it gets deleted. If it could be useful I save it and write a post about it later that night or when I have time.

Check out GetPocket.com. Oh, and did I mention that it is completely free? 

7 keys to blogging success

Be successful in your blog:

I found this while roaming the internet. I thought it was a really quick and concise starter:

AdSense... part two

My experience with AdSense

So I applied for Adsense about two days after starting my blog. I very quickly got a form email back stating that I didn’t have enough content. They need content in order to decide what, if any, ads were pertinent to my blog. That sounded reasonable. I waited two weeks or so and then re-applied. I wasn’t hopeful but I wanted to see what would happen. I got the same form letter back. Again, I understand. I am not even remotely established. I am still growing and finding my feet. So I waited a few more weeks and applied again. Then I got something I did not expect.

I got an email back a day or two later. It stated, essentially, that Google AdSense was too big to deal with the little guy. Ok, that’s how it felt at least. What it really said was that AdSense was not able to contract with me because they have to be selective in who they choose to advertise with.

I will accept that I am naive when it comes to these things.  I have only been at this for a little over a month. I have done a lot of research though. I also roam other peoples blogs and YouTube pages. Google Adsense is seen on a lot of different websites and YouTube streams. Based on this roaming, I assumed that anyone with an active blog or YouTube stream qualified for Adsense. I was wrong.  It is my guess that AdSense has grown too large to pay attention to the little guy now.  I will look around and see what other options are available and report back. 

HootSuite - Review

Don't let Twitter overwhelm you

If you are like me, you started blogging and used twitter to draw in to your blog page. For me, it was a great way to start getting my name out there. I had never used Twitter before so it took me awhile to get the hang of it. As time went on and I started using Twitter more frequently it became apparent that I needed to change the way I was doing things. That’s when I found HootSuite.

HootSuite is a great website that helps you manage your Twitter feed(s) and Facebook posts. You can set up streams of content depending on what you want to view. There are also plug-ins for it for other things like Reddit and Linkedin.

The best part of HootSuite, to me at least, is the Publish feature. This allows me to schedule my Tweets. I try to schedule three days out. I have heard that people with a more established blog/community schedule a week out. I don't have enough to say to do that.

The website is really simple to use and they have a good tutorial to walk you through how to use it if needed. To sweeten the deal, there is a mobile app. I am running it on my android phone. It doesn't slow my phone down or interact with other apps, like general twitter apps do. I like that because I work hard to keep my private life separate from my blogging one.

To top everything off, it is free. They have a professional version that does cost cash but for a small time or new blogger/twitterer (I don’t know if that is a word) the basic version is perfect. The professional version is an reasonable price also, if you need the upgrade.

So check out Hootsuite.com.