Archive for the Category »Hints «

2620666620 3a2f440022 165x300 Bloggers   Virtual Teachers On The Internet
If you blog, in some sense, you’re a teacher. You’re sharing your thoughts, opinions, life lessons, and/or stories from the past. In many cases your words will resonate with others and they will learn “something” be inspired to do “something”. Our work may create a light bulb moment leaving our readers contemplating what they read.

Today’s Lesson

When I started my blogs my hope was others would learn from what I had learned, and continue to learn. Although I don’t teach bloggers how to make money online, how to gain more RSS subscribers, or how to code pages, by asking thought provoking questions, providing links, sharing interviews with experts or sharing my finds, I do think I can teach others to be better bloggers.

In life, I learned to never accept the first thing I read about something. Being an analytical person I like to dissect the information and figure out what makes it so. As I continue my research I note if other sources are saying the same thing, or if I find conflicting information.

Blogging has been no different. I’ve found RSS feed reader numbers can be manipulated, page views are over rated , and a “visit” may not be a “visit”. When it comes to numbers, there is always a way to misconstrue the facts.

With the assignments I post on this blog, my hope is the questions I ask will make you think (and hopefully respond). Your answer, and other answers may open our eyes to greater possibilities.

For me, when I read the comments you leave, I too, am learning and expanding my knowledge base. Isn’t blogging grand?

Today’s Assignment

Yesterday we discussed what we are learning from our blogging experience, today we’ll discuss the opposite.

When you publish a blog post, do you hope the reader will take away a lesson?

If you blog in a niche, are your visitors learning more about the topic?

Based on the comments you’re receiving, are your blog posts conveying the message you had intended?

Let’s discuss this further. I’d love to hear how you hope to teach others.

6d61b32587b54553fb32d6e3f55d87d6 Bloggers   Virtual Teachers On The Internet
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Photo Credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’s photostream

all about me Its All About Me   An Interview

The tag line for this blog reads, “It’s MY blog, but it’s all about YOU”. And that’s true.

I write for you, I do my best to help you, and I’m always open to questions or concerns from you.

Recently I was honored to be interviewed by Blogger Dad.

It’s all about me.

Although my “About” pages gives you some insight into who I am, Blogger Dad asked questions about me and my blogs. Here’s a sampling:

“What are the origins of your blogs?”
“What are your blogging pet peeves?”
“How has your blog helped others?”
“Who inspired you?’
“What are your plans for your blogs?”

It was a fun and thought provoking interview.

Want to know more about me? Check out the interview on Blogger Dad’s site. It’s titled:“Eight Questions – Interview with Barbara Swafford of Blogging Without a Blog”

Want to know more about Blogger Dad? Stick around his site, dig through the archives and join me and be part of his community.

I hope to see you there. :)

6d61b32587b54553fb32d6e3f55d87d6 Its All About Me   An Interview
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2759242366 43aa93cfe3 300x199 NBOTW   Determined To Be The Best

When she writes, she hits the nail on the head. Her words resonate with me. They make me think.

This New Blog Of the Week (NBOTW) was started in June. In “Lies Remain, Truth Sets You Free” (her second post) she wrote,

Lying to self, self denial is the worst one can do to self. By denying what is true, you rob yourself of the opportunity to work upon your problem area and make things work. For here is the thing with a problem: You deny, the problem remains; You accept, you have a chance of resolving it.

Another early post of hers, “How Do Your Words Make You Feel”, discusses how we can change our feelings. She says,

Feelings usually mirror the words we use to express them. Hence, changing the way we express, will lead to changing the way we feel.

Here’s a snippet from a very popular post of hers titled: “Beginners Guide To Being Decisive”. She states amongst other things, we must have desire.

A desire to make decisions and a decision to follow on with your desire. If you are not interested to find out how to be decisive, if you are not interested in applying the solutions, it is not going to work. You need to be motivated about becoming decisive. You need to be willing to put in the required effort. Nothing is going to happen on its own.

She describes herself as

…a happiness centric, love loving, passionate, success focussed, highly motivated individual. She is a brown-eyed, petite, broad smiled, simple, down to earth woman who is constantly striving to be the best version of herself.

Her blog is Avani-Mehta.com and her name is (obviously) the same.

Please join me in congratulating Avani on her title of “New Blog Of The Week”.

Congratulations Avani!


Photo Credit: exquisitur’s photostream“Determination” ( There is always light at the end of the tunnel. No guarantee expressed or implied. Void where prohibited)

2680820093 3b2f648bef 212x300 Reflecting On Our Online Presence

Did you happen to answer Sara’s questions On Simplicity? She asked, “What are three traits you’d want people to remember you by?”.

What she discussed can also be equated to our online presence. That is, how do we actually “see” ourselves, and how do others “see” us in blogosphere?

Sara’s article reminded me of when I wrote my “Your Audience – Hitting The Bullseye” post, and replied to Hunter Nuttall’s comment by saying, “this is how I visualize Vered, of MomGrind.

She is like the “Kool-Aid Mom of the Block”. You know the one. The house where all the kids ended up at because the Mom was so cool. She always had good treats, welcomed everyone into her home, would listen intently to stories from each of the kids and never talked down to you. In fact, little boys often had a crush on her. :)

Today’s Lesson

I’ve been thinking of how I see myself, and how others might see me.

Because a “non traditional age” blogger, I see myself as a teacher, friend and/or a “mother” to many of you. Just as a mother watches over her children, I follow your progress, watch as you graduate to 100 posts, a one year anniversary, or hitting the front page of Digg. I’m proud of your accomplishments and the communities you’re building on your blogs.

I often read your posts in my reader and check how your comments are building. If your comment count is high, I often just smile and leave. Other times I drop in to say “great job” or share my views on a current post.

Keeping our online persona in mind when we post is important. It sets the tone for our words, and can help in building our communities, as well.

Today’s Assignment

How do you see yourself in blogosphere?

How do you see me?


Photo Credit: Bill in Ash Vegas’ photostream

lorelle of wordpress logo 300x215 Interview With Lorelle VanFossen   Part 6   Lets Woop It UpAnyone who has followed this blog knows I’m a stataholic who loves to analyze statistical (blog) tracking programs. A new one, named Woopra, has been added to my list. As luck would have it, Lorelle (of Lorelle on WordPress) knows Woopra better than most.

Here’s her explanation in detail.

6) In a recent email from you, you mentioned you are now the editor-in-chief of the Woopra blog/zine. Can you explain what Woopra is and how it can benefit bloggers?

is the most exciting software technology I’ve stumbled across in a very long time and I’m so thrilled to be a small part of it. Woopra is a web analytics program that reports on your blog traffic, but it is more than that. Woopra is installed on your computer as Java software, running in the background, and links to your blog through a JavaScript which can be installed manually or through the Woopra WordPress Plugin.

Woopra is different for many reasons, way beyond its purpose as a web analytics program. Primarily because it has the most beautiful software interface. It’s lovely. Woopra also tracks your blog statistics live – right now. As they are happening. There is also a live chat feature that allows you to start a conversation with visitors on your blog while they are visiting your blog. They need to do nothing more than accept your invitation to chat, no special software provided. Bloggers are having so much fun with this, even holding contests inviting people to visit and chat and handing out prizes.

When someone registers with your blog or leaves a comment, their name is storied in a cookie which Woopra can read. Woopra then changes the Visitor #34503 to “Sally Jones” – and the anonymous visitor now becomes a person moving through your blog. You can tag them and create a custom event notification so you will be alerted the next time they visit, and can track their visits over time.

One user told me that they didn’t like that Woopra was raising the accountability standards. “I can’t tell so-and-so that I visited their blog when I didn’t. They can guilt-trip me by saying, ‘I checked Woopra and you haven’t been by in six weeks!’ No more lying!” We all laughed, but I see Woopra changing the face of the web in many ways, through instant monitoring of visitors, live chats, and customized tracking.

Right now, Woopra is free for beta testing, but only by private invitation only. There are more than 25,000 beta testers, and more approvals may be coming, so you can sign up and wait, but be patient. If you get approved, you will be expected to monitor the Woopra Forums and comment and report on bugs and feature requests.

For those currently using Woopra, we are inviting our beta testers to guest blog on the about how they are using Woopra and web analytics to help them blog. We’re also looking for articles on how blog and web stats change and influence your blogging behavior – especially when it comes to social networking. How we work and use the web for our business and social life is measurable, but how do the numbers really change your experience and usage. Email me if you are a Woopra member and interesting in contributing.

Today’s Assignment

In the past I’ve written posts titled Confusing Blog Stats – Is a Visit A Visit?, Page Views Are Over Rated and in Blogging – Year One – Lesson 4, I share what I learned from stats.

Although it’s easy to get addicted to checking our statistics, much can be learned from them. Dig past the initial numbers and hoards of useful information lies beneath.

How close do you look at your statistics?

Do you know where your traffic is coming from?

Are your keywords/keyword phrases working?

What are your statistics telling you?


Woopra is an awesome statistical program. Want to become a beta tester? It’s easy. Go to Woopra.com and sign up.


Photo Credit: Lorelle’s Logo
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