Ralph Carlson Blog

When compared to my stats for the end of January posted last month, we are seeing some growth here at RCB but only in returning visitors.  Page loads are down as well as Unique visitors and First Time Visitors.  Returning visitors are up.  I like the returning visitors stat because it suggests that more of the visitors are converted to returning ones.  This suggests to me that I am providing some valuable content but that my marketing (i.e. visiting and commenting at other blogs) may have lagged from my initial activity in January.  I am not too focused on putting in the consistent time in that area which may be the reason for a decline. Last month I set a cocky and ambitious goal to double my January stats.  I didn’t come close.  I failed to reach my goal.  I am not disheartened.  I just didn’t do what I needed to make my goal happen.  Maybe I should be a little more conservative for next month.  My goal is to increase each stat by 50% which would mean 190 page loads and 17 returning visitors on average for March.

Read the rest of this entry

Popularity: 2% [?]

• Looking Back [/caption] I have covered quite a bit of ground here at RalphCarlsonBlog. I started the blog thinking that I would report on quirky and interesting...
• Taking up the Pre-Writing Challenge Image by rahady via Flickr Inspiration is all around When you poke around the web, it is hard not to be impressed and inspired by...

• SEO and Corporate Blogging When it comes to trying to promote your business in an organic way, corporate blogging is possibly the best tool that you can use. This...
• Network Marketing Blogs - Wordpress Vs Blogger This battle has been raging for years.  First if you are network marketing or affiliate marketing you absolutely can not use a free WordPress blog...

Inspiration is all around

When you poke around the web, it is hard not to be impressed and inspired by the community. When I read the Pre-Writing Challenge from Carlos, I realized that if I want to earn respect and (eventually) money from my Internet activities, it is time to step up. I have been working hard delivering my content JIT (Just In Time) which may be a good practice for manufacturing but not so good for information.  It may also handicap my goal of building a community of interested readers. Serious people step up and with the examples of James and Carlos who are delivering fantastic content while holding down regular jobs, whining is just not going to make it. I accept Carlos’ challenge.

Read the rest of this entry

Popularity: 4% [?]

• What's in my garden? [/caption] Not much blooming in the garden just now.  The camellias are finished and most everything else is dormant.  We had some serious cold (close...
• How self doubt can challenge your progress. [/caption] Last night it hit me. You can call it the wet, cold mackerel of truth. You can call it having the curtain lifted. You...

• Newbie Blogger Tips and Tricks - Must Do's and Things to Avoid here are a few posts with some blogging tips and tricks I’ve learned from seven months of blogging...if you are new to blogging these might...
• Are you in? Announcing: Inter-National Pillar Article Week - November 24-28th. Pillar Article Writing Week + Contest + 7 tips to Perfect Pillar Articles. We all sometimes get stuck in the mode of just writing our...

What’s your Niche?

Every time I turn around I see a question about niches. What is your niche. Who are your competitors? Who are your allies? How do you compare? I think about that question a lot. Not because I have any of the answers. Just because I know I should.

Read the rest of this entry

Popularity: 3% [?]

• Hello world! This is to introduce my new blog.  There is no real theme. I intend to post items that interest me.  I will also from time...
• What's in a Name? Image by Bekah Stargazing via Flickr Getting Started. I gave my blog the imaginative name you see here for a reason. It was to give...

• Blogging Advice for Small Business Are you a small business owner, and looking to generate more business through an online internet presence? If you have been considering putting together a...
• Blogs need to eat too! Feed your blog with 39 ways to build your RSS Subscriber base. So easy a slackjawed yokel could do it! Blogs gotta Eat Too! Here are 39 Great Ways to Feed Your blog so it Grows Educate Your Readers - How can they subscribe to...

I have been trying to understand the psychology of comments.  Why people comment and why they don’t.   As you might expect, bloggers can relate.  I just came across a thread at Social Photo Talk where Aaron discusses I Almost Left a Blog Comment.  He raises the issue of the hassle of commenting when you are reading blogs on Google Reader.  This is something I never considered in my list.  I suggest you listen to what he says and join the discussion.

Popularity: 2% [?]

• The offensive 'HE' Image via Wikipedia Guy Kawasaki has it right I started reading Guy Kawasaki today. I never read him before and only knew a little about...
• Thinking about comments Image via Wikipedia For a blogger, what a difference it makes when someone takes the time to add a comment to a blog post. It...

• How to Handle Corporate Blog Comments One of the biggest issues in the corporate blogging world is whether or not you should allow readers to comment on your blog posts. There...
• Microsoft Blogs Review Reading and reviewing corporate blogs from other companies is a great way to learn a little bit more about your own blog. Microsoft has a...

photo credit: woodleywonderworks
photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Last weeks post about The Top Ten Reasons for Posting Daily was popular and received the most comments so far on any post (29 comments so far) and provided some spirited conversation. Several commentors suggested that a blogger may not want to post every day and provided examples of successful, moneymaking bloggers who post infrequently. I certainly wouldn’t want to get in a fight with James about this. I will leave that task for Allyn and Steve. It is clear that it is too simple to define a successful blog by the quantity of posts and that quantity of posts will never compensate for poor content. With all this new insight under my belt, I went back to my notepad and drafted a new list:

The Top Ten Reasons for not Posting Daily

1. You will run out of material too quickly

2. It will take readers less time to get tired of you

3. It will give you more time to work on each post

4. It will give you more time to promote your blog

5. You will have more time for comments to accumulate

6. Frequency may detract from money making success

7. Readers will anticipate your next post eagerly

8. Readers will be less likely to miss posts

9. Alexa won’t care so long as readership is high

10……..

I was on a roll there with help from Steve and Allyn but when I wrote down that list, I’m still missing that blinking number 10. Help me out please. Tell me what should be the 10th reason and what is your best reason for not posting daily? Thanks.

Popularity: 14% [?]

• The Top 10 Reasons to Post Daily photo credit: woodleywonderworks Trying to keep myself up to the standards set by blog leaders like James, I developed 10 top reasons to come up...
• Beating Your Stats - Update for February When compared to my stats for the end of January posted last month, we are seeing some growth here at RCB but only in returning...

• Popular Types of Blog Posts If you own and write in a blog, then you probably understand the importance associated with keeping your blog really fresh and ensuring that your...
• Types of Popular Blog Posts If you own and write in a blog, then you probably understand the importance associated with keeping your blog really fresh and ensuring that your...

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Trying to keep myself up to the standards set by blog leaders like James, I developed 10 top reasons to come up with a new post for my blog each day:

1. Accountability to myself

2. Commitment to my readers

3. Engagement with my readers

4. Make Google happy

5. Prove that I am worthy of attention

6. Build my web presence

7. Improve my communication skills

8. Grow my self confidence

9. Build readers

10. ……

Oooops.  I seem to be missing that number 10 point.  It’s right on the tip of my tongue……

Help me out here, if you can.  Tell me what that last point is and complete my list.
photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Popularity: 5% [?]

• Beating Your Stats I have never used my stats as a measurement and encouragement in my blogging. This is just one more activity that wasn't on my radar....
• Blast from the Past It has been over a year since I started Ralph Carlson Blog. Over that time I have tried some things and made some adjustments and...

• Does Your Google Page Rank Really Affect Your Corporate Blog? Spend a few weeks reading about search engine optimization and you’ll likely become obsessed with your Google page rank score. If you’re not familiar with...
• 4 Ways to Keep People at Your Blog The longer you keep someone at your blog, the more they read, the more they see your message. If you're selling something on your blog,...

Obstacles are normal

It is normal to think that obstacles stop us from achieving our goals. At least that is what the majority thinks. Everyone knows that obstacles are a barrier to success and many of us use them as an acceptable excuse for not achieving success. You have surely heard people say, “I don’t have time to……” or “if only I had more money, I could….” In normal life these statements are used to justify a ‘get by’ life. They provide an excuse for staying where you are.

Luck has nothing to do with sucess

The average person thinks that successful people somehow don’t have any obstacles in their lives and that is why they succeed. They imagine that all the stars align and allow successful people to move confidently and easily to their goals. In their minds, luck makes it possible to succeed and most people, including themselves, are not lucky.

Obstacles and success are linked

In fact, successful people have their share of obstacles. They just don’t let obstacles stop them. They figure out a way to keep moving forward toward their goal.. In fact, they become stronger by working through these obstacles than they could ever have been without them. Sometimes the problem becomes a reason to push them to success. Sometimes solving the problem requires growth and becoming a better person by mastering new skills.

Don’t listen to unsuccessful people

Talk to a successful person and you will learn how many obstacles they overcame on the road to success. They will tell you how overcoming those obstacles made them stronger and better individuals. Talk to an unsuccessful individual and you will learn how obstacles prevented them from succeeding. Most of us never talk to successful people and therefore never learn that lesson. We do talk to unsuccessful people and therefore continue to have the wrong information about obstacles and success.

Challenge yourself to overcome obstacles

So, if you find yourself thinking that you can’t be successful because there are too many obstacles in your life, change your thinking and your associations. Read books by successful people and learn about the obstacles they overcame and the thinking that helped them do it. Follow people you admire on the web through Facebook and Twitter or on their blogs. Ask yourself how others faced those same obstacles and were able to succeed? Don’t let the obstacles control and limit your potential. Challenge yourself to master the obstacle so that you can reach your goal.

Popularity: 5% [?]

• Serendipity Image via Wikipedia Multi-syllables are good Well to begin with, it's a lovely, multi-syllabic word which trips off my tongue but there is more. It...
• What is Your Train Wreck? [/caption] Last week I briefly discussed the three train wrecks that can mess up your life.  Mine at this point in my life is the...

• Don't Just Think Big, Look Big! Get a Big Business Image With a Virtual Office - Part 1 Donald Trump and many other success gurus talk about the power of "thinking big." How the mere act of visualizing something bigger and grander than...
• The Leader Who Had No Title - Book Giveaway I'd like to introduce a new book by Robin Sharma - The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business...

The secret is out.

After serious searching, I have found the answer.  And I am going to share it with you.

Read the rest of this entry

Popularity: 2% [?]

• Get a Life Reading around the web to get a flavor of the ideas being discussed, I found this post on Copyblogger. James Chartrand tells bloggers to get...
• Personal Branding - Facebook Audit Image via Wikipedia Sharing my personal branding experience to encourage others. I am continuing to audit my social marketing on the web following the suggestions...

Why I started

About a year ago I began to hear about Web 2.0 applications and social networking.  People said that the future belonged to Web 2.0 and that the individuals who mastered it would control their niches.  At the time I was beginning to form a plan to develop a business network using the web.  I believed the buzz and began to explore social networking.  I joined Facebook. I set up a Twitter account.  I started this blog as a personal statement of who I am.

I can’t say that I had a vision of where I planned to go or how the pieces fit together.  I was borrowing visions from others who seemed to know what was going on with the expectation that things would sort themselves out along the way.  I am an optimist after all.  The blog is coming along; the business network or even the social network, not so much.

My experience so far

So how is it going?  I wish I could say that social networking is working for me.  Or that I could even understand what it would mean for it to be working for me.  When I say social networking, I mean Twitter and Facebook.  Right now I have a Facebook account and two Twitter accounts.

Facebook

Facebook has produced some results meaning that I have connected with people from my past and exchange some casual information with them.  I know things that I didn’t know before about people who weren’t in my thoughts until Facebook.  That isn’t a bad thing but neither is it a good thing because my relationships with them are just above superficial.  I have picked up some people that I have work relationships with now and some with whom I had previous work relationships.  I have not picked up any new relationships from Facebook and I haven’t developed deeper and richer relationships or pushed them in different directions because I don’t see how to do that.

Twitter

Twitter is quite different.  As soon as I joined, people started following me.  I have no idea why.  Somehow I selected some people to follow.  I don’t even remember how but some of them were the people that decided to follow me.  Maybe that’s the reason they followed but what escapes me is what benefit anyone has from having me follow them.  I have found some people that I respect and they often Tweet links to web posts- either theirs or someone they recommend.  Occasionally, I Tweet with some kind of status update- like anybody will care but I feel bad about not joining the community.  Twitter advocates suggest that you can ask questions and someone will answer.  Not true in my experience.  Apparently you can search for Tweets with keywords but so far I haven’t been able to rouse myself to the effort.

What was I expecting?

I was expecting something unexpected.  I don’t know how else to put it because Web 2.0 is supposed to open a whole new world of social networking.  It actually turns out to be not unlike regular networking at which I suck.

What am I missing?

One of the life lessons that I keep rediscovering is that most of my limitations are self imposed.  I have stepped up the effort in many areas of my life and pushed myself to learn and do different things.  I think that part of my problem is that my vision of the potential of Web 2.0 is limited by what I know right now.  The people that are advocating Facebook, Twitter and other Web 2.0 vehicles see farther or pick up a richer color spectrum that I am missing.  Has anybody broken through this barrier and taken themselves to a higher level with Web 2.0 and having done that provide me some clues about what efforts or techniques I might use to break through myself?  If so drop some breadcrumbs in my comments.

Popularity: 4% [?]

• Showing Up [/caption] I have found that one of the most important prerequisites for being a positive person is participating; going where people are and interacting.  At...
• What's in a Name? Image by Bekah Stargazing via Flickr Getting Started. I gave my blog the imaginative name you see here for a reason. It was to give...

• The value of photographic prints Stephan R. Lewis is a professional photographer. He accepted to share his knowledge with us, with this exclusive article. The value of photographic prints I...
• Skip the Mistakes and Win Big With Twitter Marketing Affiliate MillionaireTwitter has become a popular social networking forum since its inception in 2006, and it has grown explosively in recent years. Marketers have discovered...