Damien at the Speed of Life – DATSOL

Click on image to view the Excel spreadsheet.
This month’s theme: “Automation.”

Here are the textual results:

Postcards from the Funny Farm – PFTFF
9,651 Backlinks
8,630 Visits (in June ‘09)

Dynamite Lesson Plan – DLP
3,123 Backlinks
2,030 Visits (in June ‘09)

Damien at the Speed of Life – DATSOL
5,376 Backlinks
1,422 Visits (in June ‘09)

Net for all blogs= $207

Sources:
Backlinks-Yahoo
Visits-Google Analytics
Net-PayPal

Notes: Last month I used this word: “automation.” I suppose if I were putting out a CD I’d call it that. That’s the name of the game these days for my blogging life. I have just about everything automated to produce money and traffic. Backlinks are a little harder to produce that way but I’m working on new ideas every day. As a teacher who is getting more responsibility at work every day, I don’t have the time I used to devote to blogging.

Automation methods:
Backlinks: The only automation I can think of for these is submission to Article Avenue and the like. Many of my backlinks however are the result of people linking to my articles or blog because they like them. This would lead to the ultimate automation technique: “Write good content.”

Visits: In my experience, Stumbleupon and other social media has produced the largest increase in traffic. Find classy ways to ask people to read your work through social media. The following sites are the ones I am leveraging for traffic-

• Ping.fm – Choose the services you post statuses to and send a status and a link to your blog out to all of them with one click.
• Twitter – Ping.fm can take care of this one.
• Facebook – This is often a small group of a hundred or so friends. I usually use Ping.fm to drive my Facebook statuses but there are other features you can use on Facebook other than statuses to promote your blog.
• MyBlogLog -
• Blogcatalog – Send bulk messages to members of your community.

Net: Automation methods are Text-Link-Ads. I am making over $20 a month with my 3 blogs with this service. Google Adsense has made me very little money, but it is always increasing. Getting Adsense on a site is a good idea. The more traffic I get, the more Adsense will make for me.

These are the automated methods I use to make passive income. It is a small percentage of the total I make monthly but they are a substantial chunk. The rest of the pie consists of hard work writing and doing sponsored posts. I never do 2 paid posts in a row. Every other one is a rule I have for myself.

I encourage you bloggers out there to use the services and methods I have talked about.  Also, remember that each blog is its own animal.  What works for mine may not work for yours.  The thing that makes bloggers great, in my opinion, is their ability to create and innovate ideas that work for their blog.  I will continue to look for ways to automate my backlinks, visits, and net. Your comments are warmly invited.

This is great.  My wife sent me this and when I stumbled it I noticed everybody was saying how we should be so paranoid about our information on Facebook.  I didn’t get that from the artist at all.  Of course kids shouldn’t put personal information out there, but … To me it was a cartoon of a wife making fun of her husband for being so needy of attention from strangers (ie; blogging LOL).  There isn’t even a name, phone number, or address in the cartoon.  Lighten up people.  Facebook is fun, it’s only wierd if you let it be.  Still, it has millions running out to buy home slarm systems. I thought the caption would read: “True blogging witout a computer.” That would have been funnier. Click on the cartoon to view the original placement.

I woke up this morning and checked my CAN progress for the month on all my blogs only to find the analytics were in need of life support.  The past few months they have been pretty good which is why I am puzzled that now, with just as much if not more good content, they are floundering.  Well, I’m not one to sulk, I got my brain, my pencil, and a yellow pad to work.  I’m giving my traffic a jumpstart and I hope it works.  Here’s the plan:

• Stumble/review a post from each of my blogs, along with 3 other posts.  It helps to offset these to avoid looking like a showboat.
• Ask 3 people to stumble/review 3 other good posts I have written.  I might stumble three other blogs as well just for appearance’s sake.
• Comment on blogs as much as possible (keep them real).
• Twitter your latest, greatest posts.
• Research ways of getting traffic online.  Keep  a few good ideas and do them.
• Make a working routine you can do biweekly or even every day to increase traffic to your blog.

Have any traffic building ideas you care to share with this community?

In effort to make my blogs as attractive as possible to sponsored post clients and advertisers, I’ve been wading through some SEO optimizer posts today. Some really good advice came from this one I found by searching blog seo and it’s a good one:

3. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post

If you want to get listed for secondary keywords use them infrequently in the body of your post and pepper your blog titles or links with them appropriately.

Don’t overdo this or your posts will end up sounding unnatural and spammy to readers.
4. Use your keywords in the anchor text of links

Keyword in links have more importance than simple text.

Use your primary and secondary keywords in the anchor text of links when linking to other blog posts or to other pages on your main site.

Link keywords where they naturally appear in the body text, but again, don’t overdo it, or you’ll end up with spammy looking pages.
5. Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily

Set up your blog so that the side navigation bar is present on all pages.

Make sure your archives and previous posts are accessible from all pages of your blog so they get spidered easily.

I think the best seo strategy will come about after attending a sales training course. After all, aren’t we really just selling our blogs? Finding the tools that help me do that is what my seo research consists of.

There are lots of tools that will show the keyword denisity of the index but I need one that will suggest keywords based on a larger selection of posts. Still looking.

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

Blog Stats from February 1 to March 1, 2009
This is a monthly feature here where I measure my 3 blogs’ progress. My goal with this series is to provide 100% transparency. You can browse current and past entries in the CAN… category. First I list the CAN data for each blog. Then I reflect with a few notes.

Legend
C = Circulation, or backlinks
A = Analytics, or number of visitors
N = Net, or the amount of money earned by the blog

Circulation (# of Google backlinks)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 174
Damien at the Speed of Life: 32
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 40
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

Analytics (# of visits last 30 days)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 6,659
Damien at the Speed of Life: 532
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 540
The Damien Riley Podcast: 302

Net
Postcards from the Funny Farm: $64.66
Damien at the Speed of Life: $24.00
Dynamite Lesson Plan: $8.05
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

TOTAL: $106.84

Notes: Stats this month are pretty flat.  I like to see Postcards at 10-15,000 visitors a month and it was way below that.  The main reason for this is because a human only has enough energy in a day.  As I have taken on the weekly podcast and committed to a schedule of posting through the blogs throughout the week, I have taken away some of that energy from Postcards.  For what I do, that’s not the end of the world.  I am making money through Text-Link-Ads and sponsored posts on three blogs.  For me (and my kids who get ice cream off my PayPal card) I’d rather share the energy across multiple blogs.  I feel good about my posts and the energy that I am broadcasting through the podcast.  The backlinks are holding, 2 blogs went up, one went down and the podcast remains at zero.

If you have any good ideas on getting backlinks, do tell.  Advertisers do look at that criteria.

No goals this month other than to keep my posting schedule and do the usual stuff I have been doing for months. As always, I want to be open to your questions and comments through this series. If you think of something you want explained, think of this blog as my wireless alarm The comment box is waiting for you. You’ve seen my results and read my notes, what do you have to say? Is there something I missed you’d like to discuss? How were your CAN results last month?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

Walt at Random has a borderline “classic” post that chronicles Technorati’s blog and post counts the past few years.  It’s staggering how many blogs they count while so few are actually actively posted to. Walt writes (italics mine):

• In April 2007, Technorati counted an average of 1.5 million posts per day.
• In June 2008, Technorati counted an average of 900,000 posts per day: 40% fewer.
• Extending back, Technorati reported 1.2 million posts per day in April 2006–and 900,000 in August 2005.
• Here’s an odd figure: In August 2005, Technorati reported 14.2 million blogs and said 55% of them–or 7.8 million–were active. If that’s right, then the active blogosphere is basically where it was roughly four years ago, but with a whole lot of churn in between.
• That also comes out to about one post every eight days for the active blogosphere (although of course the average doesn’t exist–1.5 million blogs had posts in a seven-day period)

So folks, once again we see that blogging is not something just anybody can do.  This “gold rush” attitude of getting your credit card out and buying web space isn’t turning into gold for just anybody.  In fact, it’s not turning into gold for hardly anybody.

So where do you stand?

I don’t know about you, but I blog because I enjoy it.  There is something amazing about broadcasting words immediately to the masses that gives me a sense of importance as well as responsibility.  When a cause somes along, I have 4 blogs to post on about it.  When there’s an opportunity to make some money, my blogs are like fishing nets out there capturing opportunity.  Are you like me?  I feel what is happening is kind of like a shakedown, or a gatekeeper situation:  the truly talented and intelligent bloggers are making a way for themselves that can’t be broken.  The weak-skills,  money-driven folks unwilling to hang in there are falling by the millions.

If you know how to open your admin section and craft a post with pictures and links in it, you have the skills to start.  If you know far more than that and you are posting regularly to your blog, pat yourself on the back because you are a rarity now.  Just hang in there and you may find a little farther down the road that people will call on you and they may have money!  They will not call on you because of your grand ideas or connections in the industry.  Instead they will call upon you because you have hung in there and proven yourself an established blogger.

If you liked this post and it’s message of encouragement to bloggers, could you stumble it?

In addition to posting my blog stats each week with tips, I also offer paid services in blog building, coaching, and freelance writing. To hire me visit my freelancing site. Let me explain how I review blogs. First, the acronym:

C: circulation (or Google backlinks)
A: analytics (# of visitors last month)
N: net Amount of dollars made on all blogs combined.

Now the review formula: I have put it in the form of a 3 question quiz.

1. The number of your Google backlinks is between: (tip: to get this number, type link:http://url into a Google search)

A. zero or unknown
B. 1 – 100
C. 101 – 200
D. 201 – 300
E. 301 – 400
F. 401 or higher

2. Your visitor count last month was between:

A. zero – 500
B. 500 – 15,000
C. 15,001 – 25,000
D. 25,001 – 35,000
E. 35,001 – 45,000
F. 45,001 or higher

3. The amount of money you made blogging on all your blogs combined:

A. zero – 100 dollars
B. 100 – 200 dollars
C. 201 – 300 dollars
D. 301 – 400 dollars
E. 401 – 500 dollars
F. 501 dollars or higher

Where A=0, B=1, C=2 and so on up to F=5 respectively, add up the total value of the three letters in your answers: ie; B,C,D would equal 1+2+3=6 Then divide by the total possible(15) to get your can percentage: 6/15= 40%

Then assign your percentage a CAN Blog rating based on this scale:

0 – 16%=CAN0
17 – 33%=CAN1
34 – 50%=CAN2
51 – 67%=CAN3
68 – 84%=CAN4
85 – 100%=CAN5

The example score of 40% is between 34 -50% so it earns a

After I show your CAN “grades,” I give you a few minor yet valuable notes on what I liked and what you might work on to improve your CAN rating.

Thanks for previewing my rating system. I recommend setting your own goals for your blog. These parameters work for me but certainly they are not universal. Since I started using them I have seen stats as skinny as as if it took a double dose of Solo Slim turn much fatter. If interested you can follow my own blogs’ CAN BLOG RATING progress.

If you haven’t discovered it yet, Entrecard.com is a relatively new service for blog marketing and networking. You have an “entrecard” and all the other blogs do as well. You get points to advertise your blog through “dropping” on other blogs. There is a lot more to it but that is the basic gist of it.

I used to spend countless hours dropping and trying to get thousands of points. It got to a point where I was wasting valuable time on the service. Today mark the day I have really come back to it and I spent a very short amount of time. I wanted to record my results to see if I am at a good pace or if I am too slow. Plus, I’m hoping to get some pointers from you all. Here’s what I have learned works best for me:

1) Use IE as FF seems to crash a lot doing this heavy memory load stuff.
2) Use right-click “Open link in new tab” function, one drop at a time. I have tried multiple opens through “LINKY” add-on in FF and as I said, crash city!  It is way better in my opinion to drop one at a time.
3) Don’t rush. Be deliberate with each drop and take time to read the latest post. I even watched a video entry today and was very happy to see that. I do those from time to time.

That’s about all I’ve figured out so far. Here is my tracked time for today:

11:54pm start
12:10pm end
total: 16 mins.

Progress: 12 ec drops and 2 comments left

Will you try Entrecard.com now that I’ve shared my tips? If you already do it, are there any good tips you can share to cut time? (Hopefully we’ll get some tips from dragonblogger)

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

Blog Stats from January 21 to February 21, 2009
This is usually a monthly feature here where I measure my 3 blogs’ progress. This is a special mid-month post. My goal with this series is to provide 100% transparency. You can browse current and past entries in the CAN… category. First I list the CAN data for each blog. Then I reflect with a few notes.

Legend
C = Circulation, or backlinks
A = Analytics, or number of visitors
N = Net, or the amount of money earned by the blog

Circulation (# of Google backlinks)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 166
Damien at the Speed of Life: 51
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 34
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

Analytics (# of visits last 30 days)
Postcards from the Funny Farm: 9,233
Damien at the Speed of Life: 572
Dynamite Lesson Plan: 451
The Damien Riley Podcast: 217

Net
Postcards from the Funny Farm: $54.66
Damien at the Speed of Life: $8.05
Dynamite Lesson Plan: $19.00
The Damien Riley Podcast: 0

TOTAL: $93.01 (First thing I wanna do is go our and buy an electric blanket for each of my kids -and then one for my wife and I, it is cold!

Notes: This has been a skinny month in some ways.  In other ways it has been solid and productive.  I have put Entrecard back on all four blogs.  I am curious to see the effect on traffic.  Please note this particular post is only a mid month report.  These are usually published only once a month.  I’ll publish another CAN post after March 1st.

As always, I want to be open to your questions and comments through this series. The comment box is waiting for you. You’ve seen my results and read my notes, what do you have to say? Is there something I missed you’d like to discuss? How were your CAN results last month?

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

When I tell people I “blog” part time they immediately blurt out one of three responses: They, 1) seem confused and ask what blogging is, 2) want to know how much money I make -or- 3) ask if I can get them making money immediately.  For this reason, I usually don’t get into the topic of what has become my part-time job.  On the other hand, I use my PayPal card often (a card bloggers get paid through) to buy my wife, kids, and friends stuff like pizza and Baja Fresh (Baja tacos in the photo were paid for through blog money)  .. that’s enough for me to feel successful!  In fact, it’s amazing to me that I get paid for writing and tweaking code!  That, to me, is blogging.  This is probably due to the fact that 1) I don’t do it primarily for money, 2) I love to communicate and broadcast ideas, and 3) I prune my blogging to fit into no more than 15 hours a week (strict personal guideline).  I read an article tonight a Stumbleupon friend sent me that decries blogging as a “get-rich-quick” method.  I’d have to agree with that.  You won’t get rich quick doing it.  Having said that, you can make “fun money” through writing and tinkering with code and graphics.  I couldn’t ask for more in a part time job.

I did my time in college earning a BA, MA, and a teaching credential in California, one of the most rigorous states for credentialing.  I have a great job as a teacher and I work 185 days a year developing young minds.  What more could I ask for?  Well, there is something and I am doing it: blogging.  I have developed, after over 2 years, a method of setting blog goals and strictly organizing my time to create income as I go.  I just did my 2008 taxes and saw that I made nearly $3,000 blogging … it adds up!  If I was seeking to quit my job, this would be disappointing but I am not.  Without my job, what would I write about?  Beyond that, I feel my blog helps my career.  Reflective journaling has been proven study after study to be an ideal habit for leaders in their fields.  I don’t blog to escape my life, my blog is integrated with my life.  Reading my blog you get life as I see it and I wouldn’t want to sit around in pajamas raking in millions through my blog.  Furthermore, I get comments and emails all the time from readers who tell me my “journal” has helped them in some way.

This year I hope to make more than last year but it still won’t be enough to pay my student loan each month.  One of my blog tenets is “100% transparency” and I publish my blog stats every month.  I’m not seeking to get rich blogging but I am seeking to get rich-er.  My college degrees, my teaching career, my 3 children and lovely wife make me rich in ways far beyond money.  I am comfortably writing about that every day and broadcasting a weekly podcast every weekend.  One part of my individual earning method is having 4 blogs instead of just one and scheduling post deadlines for myself throughout the week.  This allows me to have more variety in advertising pull and all I am doing is journaling, in essence.  I am a mentor to three people currently and I have mentored a total of 11 people formally since I started this.  I tell them all I don’t know how to get rich at this, I only know how to manage time and tasks and make some side money.  No one has backed out of being my mentee after hearing that.

In conclusion, If you read blogs to learn how to get rich, don’t waste your time on mine.  On the other hand, if you want to compare notes on how to get tacos and pizza and take your wife out on a fancy date once in a while, you would definitely profit from reading and listening to my stuff:

http://www.postcardsfromthefunnyfarm.com/ – My thoughts on psychology and inspiration
http://www.damienriley.com/ – My personal blog
http://www.dynamitelessonplan.com/ – My teaching reflections blog
http://podcast.damienriley.com/ – My weekly podcast (recorded each weekend in my freezing garage)

What’s your take on blogging?