Milestone 100

I had to write about it because this is my 100th post this year.

Just like the press talking about the President's one hundred days in office and kids celebrating 100 days in school - I am celebrating my 100th post this year.

So what have I learnt?
Write everyday, write from the heart and if you want something bad and really focus on it - nothing can stop you - not even God.

Writing is cathartic - when you start writing you start with one thing in mind, by the time you are done - it is something else.

I am excited about my blog - I have connected with friends, people are interested in reading what I have to say and I get to write every single day and find my voice.

I still have 191 posts to go to meet my goal - but in the meantime I am going to celebrate this milestone.

Becoming a better blogger

I signed up for the 31 days to Become a Better Blogger. This is through www.problogger.net. It lists a new idea every day and something that you have to work on - like an assignment.

It is interesting. It gives me a view of how other people are viewing their blogs. There is so much to learn. If you are already blogging then this is something to try out.

How is the writing going?

Weeell, not so good since I should be posting every day but I have a valid reason. I joined this course and that is keeping me busy.

I know, I know, no excuse for not writing since that is the whole idea of the blog - but the content is forcing me to think strategy and long term and I never realized I am my own worst enemy.

Even Daniel, who is running the course took a break from his technical/business writing to write a post about loving what you do and loving Mondays. Check it out. Totally agree with him - back to finding your passion.

Interesting how everything you look at always comes back to that question that is burning a hole in your brain eh?

Taking the next step

When you are focused on what you want to do - the Universe starts to make things happen - cause that is what you asked for. So I decided to put my fears aside and proceed. I joined a course online to understand more about blogging and internet marketing. (Check out www.onlineprofits.com)

I have to say this is the scariest move for me. I have been saying I need to find my passion, well the perfect opportunity presented itself. The first step in the course is to find your passion - talk about getting right to the heart of the matter. Now not only do I have to find my passion - I have to hurry up and find it so that I can create my website based on that.

As I read some of the other posts, there are those that sound so certain as to what they want to do - and how they want to proceed and it motivates me. There are kids as young as 14 and 17 - have a fresh perspective on life and yet they sound like they have been around a long time and they know exactly what they want.

Will keep blogging the progress on this adventure. In the meantime I need to get back to finding my passion.

My first month report - Happy Anniversary to me

It has been a little over a month since I started blogging yet it seems like I just started yesterday. I started the blogging cause I needed to write. There were too many ideas and words overflowing in my head that needed to be on paper. This was the the perfect forum - where I could keep track of everything I am doing and see how my thoughts and ideas shape my writing.

As is only natural while on the web, you start to surf and one post leads to a link and then to another and the next thing you know three hours have passed. The most amazing thing about blogging is the amount of information that is available at your fingertips. Do you know what the most overwhelming thing about blogging is - you got it - the amount of information that is available.

As I read some of the blogs (I have the link on my fave reads) there are some points that I have taken into consideration, some that I am not ready for and some that makes sense depending on what you want to do.

In the last month - I learnt a little more about how to use blogger, adding links etc, write almost everyday, added AdSense, figured out how to read the stats, found a few great blogs that i like to read, subscribed to a couple and still finding my voice. There is enough information to tell me how to go about doing all of the above.

This month I am plan is to write everyday, comment on a few blogs, understand what affiliate marketing is all about, and keep writing. Strange how I feel about it. If I have not written in a couple days, I get antsy, like I am missing something. It only takes 21 days to create a habit. I am trying to make it a habit to write everyday. So far so good.

Q: Why am I blogging?
Answer: To write.

I have read about folks starting to blog for various reasons - whether it be meeting with like minded individuals or making money or both. I have subscribed to a couple posts where they show how you can make a $100 dollars in a day - yet there are so many terms that I don't understand, or I don't get the concept - cause I am blogging to write.

I have seen blogs that say that you should have your own domain hosted website so that people will take you seriously - but is there anything that is free? Yes there is and I am using it. Right now I cannot afford to buy my own space - I am still finding my voice.

Some of my favorite blogs are about people who write cause they love to write - and they do it consistently and they write about what they know and what they have experienced - and I like that - cause I am doing that too.

I see articles about blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), increasing views and readers, twitter, face book, RSS feeds, interviews, podcasts, e-books and the list goes on and on. Just goes to show how much is out there to learn.

I am still finding my voice. When I do, you will be the first to know. In the meantime you can tell me how did you find yours (voice, that is) or are you still looking?

I am building it - so will they come?

Ok, so I wanted mine to look like all the other professional ones out there and did not know how. So thank you to http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/ for simple instructions for novices like me. I wanted the Feedburner stats like everyone else had so I just had to go to Feedburner and follow the instructions. Duh! I figured out how to add the number of readers (which at this time is only me) and the RSS feed (which stands for Really Simple Syndication - which means that people will know when I have updated my blog and they can read it without going to the site, sort of like a bookmark).

Now just to figure out how to let people know about my blog. Hmm, I guess posting about it will help, any ideas where to start?

Blogging 101

As mentioned in earlier posts, this whole blogging experience is very new to me. As I keep my eyes and ears open about blogging and ever since I have made a conscious decision to write everyday on this blog, I hear and see more and more information about blogging. (That, by the way is the Law of Attraction taking place.)

I read somewhere it takes a year to learn and another year to perfect a new skill. Considering this is my new skill, I am giving myself a year to educate myself in this creative task of writing and you will see the progress I make along those lines.

To start, I decided to go with something relatively simple that gave you all the tools - so that I can focus on the main topic which is writing. That was the main idea of creating the blog - developing the habit of writing everyday. As I forayed into the blogging world, I see the endless opportunities out there - depending which way you want to go. But, whatever the intention - Content is King - as I have read in countless of the posts out there. If you write something that is worth reading - they will come.

So having said that - the next is understanding what all the terms mean. I can see that there are some that specialize in the novices on setting up their blog and others in helping them monetizing the blogs. There are others that will help you understand the nuances of marketing and some others that will help you increase your page rank or readers.

Adding Google AdSense was easy - sign up and it walks you through it. It says it is the easy way to generate income but I have yet to see it in action. The way I understood it - based on your article and key words - corresponding ads will be placed on your site. If a reader clicks on it - you get paid for it. Hmmm - I hope it is working.

I am still learning the terms and I see - twitter follower, reader, subscriber, follower, RSS feed to name a few. At this point I wanted to know how many people read this blog. I haven't done any publicity. So I went to Bravenet and downloaded a counter. From the looks of it - I don't think it should count the times that I log in - I am still checking that out. The stat counter does tell me how many unique, new and repeat hits I have.

Now to understand what the RSS feed is and what does feedburner do and do I need it.

Feel free to educate me on the blogging terms and how they can help.