Blogging Sueblimely

Welcome to Blogging Sueblimely. To keep up with my posts you can subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

My Scoutle scout is busy strolling round blogs that match my interest areas. You can see her in action in my footer. She is meeting up with other scouts who share my interests. Hopefully their creators will then come and visit my blog, be fascinated with its content, subscribe, comment regularly and become blogging contacts - time will tell.

Scoutle considers itself to be “Automated Social Networking” where there is no need for communication in order to connect and no real life obligations. I think they must be talking only about the initial method of connection here as, once you have connected with someone, there must be communication for a blogging relationship to develop and establish.The novelty of Scoutle is that you do not have to search for people to connect with, Scoutle’s search does that for you, filtering out sites that it considers not worthy - eg outdated sites or those just that only exist for advertising purposes. As well as finding contacts via the widget you can discover other members on the Scoutle website itself, - via contacts of contacts and through networks based on interest areas.

Scoutle is premised on the idea that it is the quality of connections that is important not the quantity. This appeals to me considering the masses of people I do not know that connect to me on sites such as MyBlogLog; many who have likely never visited this blog. Scoutle allows your Scout to walk twice for every time you have a visitor to your site - the more your Scout gets to walk the more it will appear on the sites of other Scoutle members. You make contact with other users by requesting to make a “Connection” with them via the Scoutle website. You score points based on your site visitor numbers and the number of Connections you make. The higher your point value the higher your place in the Scoutle Guide, which in turn should lead to more visitors.

This service has been available for a good few months now and, although as usual I joined as soon as I heard about it, I felt that I already took part in too many social networking activities and these were beginning to take time away from blogging: becoming counterproductive. I have since narrowed these down to networks I find the most use and enjoy using the most so I have some leeway to explore others.

I will report on Scoutle once I have had more opportunity to find out if it is working for me, although I suspect it is not attracting as many members as it deserves because of general social networking fatigue as well as the desire not to have too many widgets. I have already discovered a few very informative blogs that I had not come across before - one you may be interested in is Social Web Tools by ChaCha Fance - it sent me off in discovery of various new, interesting applications.

If you are a Scoutle member please leave a comment letting us know what you think of it.

(I placed the Scoutle widget in my footer because this reduces the impact of any increase in page load time it causes - the footer loads last so the rest of the page is visible even though the social networking widgets may not have fully loaded)

Popularity: 8% [?]

You have likely heard of Ed Dale’s 30 Day Challenge, as it is now in its third year, but if you are not in the business of making money from your blog you may not have taken too much notice. I suggest you do consider joining in even if you are not interested in the money making aspects of blogging; because of the resources and tools you will learn about which are useful to all bloggers. Over 30 days Ed presents a series of video tutorials (with transcripts) with the aim of showing how to make money from blogging. Easy to understand step by step instructions are given for participants to follow. To accompany the videos there are forums to answer questions and provide support. Joining in a Challenge group is a good idea to develop a closer support network with a smaller group of fellow participants. Each group has its own forum. There is even a browser toolbar available to make it easier to follow the challenge.

Although I have not ventured into online money making I have joined the 30 Day Challenge for the second time. I was newer to blogging the first time round and learned a lot about blog promotion, social networking, blogging tools and search engine optimization. Knowing that new content is produced for each Challenge and that the tools available to us rapidly increase and change, I felt that I would again benefit from participating. There is no pressure to follow each step rigidly and if you cannot find time to view the daily offerings you can catch up another time.

The Challenge actually starts/started on 1st August but it is not too late to join in. There are some recommended “pre-season” preparation activities which are useful in their own right. Not being patient enough to watch videos I read the transcripts of these so that I could pick out areas that I thought may be new to me. This time round the use of the Flock browser is being recommended and there are guides to help you get started with it. I am close to moving over to Flock from Firefox and will do so once I have configured it with my favorite extensions. At present, I always have it open alongside Firefox for its social networking, Flickr and YouTube tools.

I followed Ed’s example by creating a Google Subscribe Link for Sueblimely. You can subscribe via the “Add my expertise to your Google web searches” in my sidebar. Here are the FAQs for Google Subscribe Links if you are interested in creating your own.

You can join up by via my 30 Day Challenge Refferal Link or via the 30 Day Challenge site directly and find me in Team Lightening There are prizes to be won for those with the most referrals. I don’t expect to be anywhere in the running for these but it would be good not to have a referral point value of zero

Popularity: 8% [?]

Feeling particularly generous I recently offered some prizes for inclusion in the Life is Colorful Anniversary Contest.

My contribution is a 125×125 ad on my site and 2,000 entrecard credits. I would be delighted if they were won by one of you. There are various ways to enter the contest, the simplest being to subscribe to Life is Colorful. Visit the contest post for more details of entry requirements and the long list of prizes available.

I decided to follow the Life is Colorful blog after I read the post “Earnings Crossed $10,000 this year on May 7th” as I would love to learn some of the secrets to making that much money online!

Good luck if you enter

Popularity: 8% [?]

Cross a bored geek from Sydney (called Stuart), with a dream (of an interesting concept) and a bottle of Diet Coke (no explanation needed) and the result is MissionToTrade.com.

» »$?

Stuart started on 7th May by offering a $3 Diet Coke for trade. He traded this with a workmate for a $13.99 Pack of Golf Balls, which was in turn traded for a $39.95 Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse set.

This is all within the first week of starting. Where will it lead I wonder - will it end up with trades for valuable items? I am going to following the progress closely.

All I have to trade right now is an old queen size bed base with one leg broken and a single mattress which has seen far better days (even The Brotherhood would not take them). A trip to the tip is in order very soon as they are sitting in my hallway and not adding anything to the decor.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It seems appropriate after my last post to take part in this Entrecard meme. It is likely an indication of Entrecard’s current popularity that I get tagged twice for this. I find the concept fascinating and will be following the trends closely. I will be also be looking out for its Entry into Wikipedia.

Andrew Boyd and Guera have tagged me for an Entrecard meme - "Chain Drop 8 above the fold". Andrew explains what "above the fold" means and why it matters- Entrecard (and other ads) above the fold…

Rules-

• Create a post on your blog that links back to this post.
• Tag 8 bloggers not mentioned in this post who display their Entrecard widget above the fold and have great content.
• Leave a comment on this post and share the link to the post you made.

I would like to tag the following who have their Entrecard Widget ‘above the fold’:

• Photos from Northern Norway: A photo blog
• Tim Christie Photography, Life And The Blogosphere
• Mother’s Got A Dot Com
• Social Networking Rocks - she has an interesting article on the Zion5 Network
  Website Promotion on Zion5 which I have joined for learning purposes.
• Schwoit - You can read about his strategies on dropping and thanking on My Entrecard Strategy
  
• Interesting Observations
  
• Fun, Crafts and Recipes
  
• HiTech Dads
  - say hello to Jack while you are there, the beautiful new son of a hitech dad.

Please do not feel obliged to take part in this if you would rather not - just accept the link-love as a gift :-).

An afterthought - the comments in my last post are probably more interesting than my post itself. It would be good to keep that conversation going so feel free to add your own opinions of Entrecard to the comments there. Are you finding it useful, do you think it a flash in a pan, will the novelty wear off? Are too many people taking advantage of it and will this put others off using it? Will the Entrecard ‘Wombats’ get hungry and look for juicier leaves?

Popularity: 3% [?]

The blogosphere is a’buzz with talk of Entrecard, probably because it suits a wide range of bloggers and is proving successful in bringing visitors. Credits are being sold on blogs and Ebay. Designers are springing up offering their skills to create razzle dazzle, "pick me, pick me" cards. Contests galore are being held - credits being given away as prizes for subscribing to blogs, for linking and writing blog posts…. Blogs are being set up dedicated totally to Entrecard. Example: The Entrecarder

I have not seen so much action since MyBlogLog started. Blogrush promised to be the same but I notice more and more of their widgets disappearing.

Entrecard has proved to be a good source of visitors for me although, apart from those who know me already, I have had very few resulting comments. Admittedly I do not comment on all blogs that I drop on. As sites are costing more to advertise on, the more site hopping I have to do to earn enough Entrecard points to pay for them. Not all blogs are of interest of course although I have found some excellent sites which I will be revisiting.

I am enjoying Entrecard, there is something about the concept that appeals to me. Perhaps it is because it is less impersonal than other "link swapping" type applications; being able to see, via your dashboard, who has visited me, receiving requests for ads on my blog, having mine approved and receiving the occasional much appreciated thank you message.. The appeal has not yet worn off but I suspect it will soon - it is yet one more thing to take time away from actual blogging.

Forums and groups are being set up purely for Entrecard discussion and promotion.

• Fawnzy.Com forum

Blog Catalog Groups:

• Entrecard Group
• Entrecard
• Entrecards
• Entrecard-2

Entrecard News

• You may have noticed the "U Drop and I Follow Badge" courtesy of Lee Doyle - Contains Nuts . Lee is compiling a list of those who are displaying his badge which may result in extra visitors and drops. By displaying the badge return visitors are more likely as they know you will reciprocate.

• You can quickly visit random Entrecard user sites through the blog browsing site SiteHoppin. Just set the tag you want to browse to "Entrecard sites in general" or its sub-categories to find Entrecard sites that cover a particular topic.
• Aussie Bloggers on Entrecard - a list of Australian bloggers created by Andrew of On Blogging Australia
• PowerDropping.com displays a constantly updated list of the 300 fastest loading Entrecard accessorized sites where the cards are are positioned above the fold. I suspect I would need to clean my sidebar up and ditch videos to speed my page loading time before I qualified.
• Free Entrecard card designs by Mark Lloyd - Mandy - Marc Roger

Popularity: 3% [?]

What is Qassia

Qassia’s aim is to “become a vast repository of intelligence, with unrivaled original content” This intelligence will be the “gravel which will fill the potholes on the information superhighway” It is also a site, currently in beta , where you can promote your blog and earn adsense revenue. Membership is by invitation only at present.

What is “intel”:

Intel can be about a person, a company, a place, a thing, or just about anything. It must be in English, comprised of sentences as opposed to keywords, non-pornographic and not about Qassia. Each “intel” has to be screened and rated by a minimum of 10 users before being published (or rejected). Intel does not have to be academic or highbrow, you can submit snippets about anything under the sun and beyond. I have just read intel about digital cameras, how to avoid stress and some personal experiences.

Intel can take the form of previously unpublished information, information already published on a blog/website or third party content that you are legally allowed to redistribute.

Blog Promotion - comes via two methods.

1. Submitting your blog URL gains you a followable backlink with no requirements for reciprocal links or widgets to be displayed on your site.
2. Submitting a snippet of “intel” earns you a backlink to your site as well as “Qassia dollars” The more you published content you submit the more backlinks you will get. The more you earn, the higher your site willl rank in Qassia, increasing the chance of it being seen my more people. More credit is awarded for totally new content than for information already published on your blog.

Earning Money via Qassia

Google adsense is displayed alongside any “intel” that is displayed. Any adsense revenue earned by “intel”you have is submitted is 100% yours.

If you would like to join please accept an invitation by me by clicking on ’sign up’ in the text on my qassia home page sueblimely.qassia.com or directly at signup.

I will receive credits for you signing up, but as membership is by invite only, you can only join via invite/referral by another member. (For a 12-hour period after joining Qassia, you are awarded $500 “Qassia dollars” per referral (the standard referral commission is $100).

Popularity: 2% [?]

New Ripple Widget

Thanks to a great new blogging forum (still in beta so not yet open for public registration) I found out about a new Google Search alternative, Ripple. Using the Google search engine, all searches done through Ripple generate funds for Australian Charities ( all are charities that operate internationally) as does clicking on sponsored ads on the Ripple site. 100% of the money earned goes to the charities. The widget currently displayed at the top of the right sidebar is only one of a few available “splashpond” buttons available.

Criteo Widget

So far the results of using the Criteo widget (top of far right sidebar) have been disappointing - it has not resulted in any visitors at all to this blog. Here are the stats:

Criteo AutoRoll generated 0 visit on this blog, by 0 unique visitor. This blog link was displayed 12753 times on other blogs using Criteo AutoRoll and was seen by 3002 unique visitors.

This blog is getting plenty of exposure, having been displayed nearly 12753 times but it seems that no-one has been clicking on my link. Although Criteo is meant to intuitively match you to blogs similar to your own, I have not seen this happen. There have been lots of mobile phone sites listed??. I am going to continue to monitor the results, having changed my category choices in Criteo options. I have now chosen more general categories rather than web and tech. Criteo allows you to delete sites from the widget if you do not think them suitable. The term it uses for this is “blacklisting” a term, which is a little off-putting as I do not like the idea of “blacklisting” perfectly valid and often good blogs just because the subject matter is not relevant to this site.

One feature I like is that Criteo widget loading does not hold up the loading of the rest of the this page. It appears after the rest of the sidebar has loaded. Much better than the slow loading widgets that do delay page loading. MyBlogLog and other social networking sites should take note!

I notice from the Top 500 English-written blogs using Criteo AutoRoll list that a couple of people I know are also using the widget - Colin of Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe and Lady Banana. Perhaps you could let me know if the widget has been of use to you? The same goes for anyone else who uses the widget reading this post. Your feedback would be appreciated. I will not give up on the widget yet but continue to monitor it to see if my preference changes make any difference.

Feedjit Widget

Although I could get similar stats from other programs I am enjoying this widget. Not only is it interesting finding out where my visitors are coming from geographically, it has been very useful to have a readily available source of information on where visitors are hailing from and which posts they are reading. It is a little large and therefore intrusive so if I do decide to keep it I will move it further down the sidebar.

Entrecard

The Entrecard widget has produced a reasonable amount of visitors to this blog. The nature of the Entrecard program does mean that members will have a look at other member sites, but this does not necessarily translate the visitors into readers. Members check out sites to see if they are worth spending their entrecard points on to advertise their own sites - they may have no interest in actually reading the blog they visit. This is no different to most traffic promotion sites/schemes; with most of them it is the number of visitors that matters. The more visitors that arrive, the more likely hood there is of at least some of them returning as regular readers.

I am going to keep this widget in place for a while longer. One advantage it has over other traffic exchange type programs is that you can choose what blog is going to appear on the widget - you do not have to compromise your blog’s integrity by advertising sites for the sake of it. My initial enthusiasm for checking out and accepting or rejecting requests for others to advertise on my widget soon waned however. This is why you are mainly seeing my face instead of another blog’s logo.

I am going to the Entrecard site now to approve some blogs that I think are appropriate to advertise here; those that are either of use in contributing to my blog topics or those that are just good reads.

Popularity: 3% [?]