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195052782 c06fde0723 Blogs   The New Electronic Paper Trail

In business and in life, we leave what’s called a paper trail. On the internet, it’s called often referred to as an electronic paper trail.

Most transaction we make, can be followed. Our bank statement shows how much money we have, and where we spent it. Credit/debit card records are similar. Our medical records are tracked. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has records of our earnings and taxes we paid, as does our State government. Electronic copies of all these records are often archived on hard drives, portable media storage, in vaults or secure rooms, and with the proper authorization, they can be viewed.

Credit bureaus have our financial information. With it, they assign a “credit score”.

Companies do a “security clearance” for some types of jobs. Whether they access this information or not, is unknown, however with our social security number, birth date and drivers license number, the electronic information that can be revealed is unlimited.

Although most of this is private information, the amount of public information produced by individuals can also be detrimental.

Blogs are a good example of public information. Blogs are published works of “art”, per se.

Today’s Lesson

A post on The Blog Herald inspired this topic. Written by Andrew G.R, and titled: Blogger Beware: Big Brother Is (Always) Watching,., he says:

More than 40% of large companies read employee e-mails and are hunting for you on the major social networks.

So we have to ask, who is reading our blogs, and who will be reading them in the future?

By “in the future”, I mean 10, 20 or 30 years from now.

Currently our employer could be reading our blog.

Future employers may also read our writings.

You may say, “I’m self employed and I am my own boss”.

But what happens if our current business can’t sustain itself in a flailing economy. What if we’re forced to work for “the man” again. Or what about our spouse. If they work, an employer could easily “Google” the family name and find our blog.

Have we written anything that could be detrimental to our spouse’s employment? Or, our children’s?

O.K., so you say, “Well I can delete my blog”.

Yes you can. But, what about others (our loyal readers) who have quoted us, or the person who plagiarized our work (but left our name intact). We can’t delete their blogs. We could email them and beg to have the articles deleted, but their blog may be in dormancy and their contact information could be invalid. Or is the original post(s) cached/saved in some internet “vault”? Maybe.

And….what did we write in the comment section of other blogs? Could that hurt us?

Then there’s the issue of emails and social networks. Are we projecting a different persona? Are we being more verbal? Exposing a side of ourself that our blog doesn’t project? Are we revealing trade “secrets”?

What if the day comes we (or our spouse) decide to enter into politics? Or our company goes global? Who will dig up our electronic paper trail?

It happens, and it gets people in trouble.

Today’s Assignment

Google yourself

Google you spouse’s name

Do you like what you find?

Could it hurt you a year from now? 10 or 20 years from now? How about 40?

Would you make your grandchildren proud?

How about your “public”?

Do you care?


Photo Credit: tyger_lyllie’s photostream

843126236 6e5242b125 New Bloggers Are Being Scammed

As a new blogger, you’ll read how easy it is to set up a blog.

Let’s look at WordPress. Their homepage says:

1. Find a Web Host and get great hosting while supporting WordPress at the same time.
2. Download & Install WordPress with our famous 5-minute installation.
3. Consult the Documentation and become a WordPress expert yourself.

Or, for the ultimate in ease of use, get a free blog on WordPress.com.

Blogger (Google’s free blog), reads similar:

Create a blog in 3 easy steps:

1. Create an account
2. Name your blog
3. Choose a template

Create your blog now

A fee based blog, like TypePad, says the same

TypePad is the premier blogging service, hosting the world’s leading blogs and small business websites. Whether you’re a first-time blogger or a seasoned pro, TypePad can help you create a great-looking blog in minutes

Today’s Lesson

Create a blog in minutes? Minutes? Who are they kidding?

First of all, you need a domain name. Finding an available one, could take hours.

So after registering your domain name, you might have access to a blog in minutes, but that is not the same as blog “creation”.

It’s at that point when you’re sitting in front of your computer screen saying, “now what?”.

I remember when I set up my first blog. I got my domain name from Yahoo. Then I signed up for BlueHost, as my web host..

That was my first mistake.

I couldn’t access my blog, didn’t know why, and then found out I had to “point my browser” (whatever that meant), to BlueHost. Had I signed up for the domain name with BlueHost, I would have alleviated that problem.

It was a frustrating experience, but in the end, it all worked out.

I still look at these “ads” and become concerned. Why? Because for anyone like me, it’s not easy.

Anyone who doesn’t find it easy, should know they’re not alone. If they can’t figure it out right away, doesn’t mean they’re stupid or unequipped to have a blog.

It’s typical advertising. It’s a quick sell.

Today’s Assignment

Did you find it easy to set up your first blog?

Are you still trying how to set up a blog?

What hints or tips can you share with new bloggers that would make it easier for them to set up a new blog?

Do you know of any web hosting companies that will hold a new blogger’s hand?


Photo Credit adrigu’s photostream

2298329028 1903b37e07 m NBOTW Will Set You On Fire

Have you ever noticed how some things are right under your nose, but you can’t see them?

This week, I encountered that problem.

I’ve been on my weekly hunt for my “New Blogger Of The Week” (NBOTW). I visited most of my usual haunts, did Google searches, clicked on dozens of links, got so deep into cyberspace I didn’t know how I got there, but I was still no closer to finding my NBOTW.

I decided to step away from the pressure, and make myself a glass of ice tea.

With tea in hand, I looked at my homepage and decided to check up on Harmony. It was there I found this new blogger.

She’s a writer, and it shows.

She likes daffodils, so I pick her a bouquet (from Flickr)

She wrote a post and named it: Masterminds and Daffodils

Buried in her archives, she shares one of my favorite poems of all time. It’s written by Rudyard Kipling and it’s titled “If”. It starts with these words:

If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

For anyone who has never heard this poem, it’s a awesome. It’s well worth the read. I printed it to use for inspiration.

This gal is full of enthusiasm, and she’s sharing her secrets to stay motived, in her post titled:Catch On Fire But Don’t Burn The Laundry aka “tips for getting out of bed on fire”

Read her blog, and you’ll find her enthusiasm to be contagious.

Her name is Wendi, and her blog is “Life’s Little Inspirations”. Her tag line is: “The thoughts, ideas, attitudes and people that inspire us to make a difference…or sometimes just make it through the day.”

Start each day with Wendi, and it’s bound to be a great one.

Please join me in welcoming Wendi to the community at BWAB.

Don’t forget to hop over to her blog for your daily dose of inspiration.

Hello Wendi!


Photo Credit: terren in Virginia’s photostream

2438005410 6100c23246 m Blogging   Year One   Lesson Twelve
I couldn’t end this series without talking about making money with blogs.

Most bloggers start a blog with money as part of the equation. I did.

However, the truth about making money with a blog is often misleading.

Search online and you’ll find many sites, e-books, or “subscribe to this” that claim you can make big money, FAST, with a blog. It will only cost you $X.XX. Sign up, share your credit card number, and you can make thousands in a short time. It must be true. After all, they show a copy of a check(s), made out to themselves, for an astronomical amount of money.

Pictures don’t lie. Or do they?

When I started blogging, I plastered ads on my two blogs. I signed up for Google AdSense, LinkShare.com, Commission Junction and Amazon.

I then proceeded to spend countless hours adding ads, moving ads, changing ads, resizing ads, and then constantly checking the statistics to see how many hundreds I was making. HA! That was a joke. I wasn’t making anything. Months passed, some of the ads remained, but my pocketbook wasn’t any thicker.

I didn’t spend any money by joining these “companies”, but I did lose tons of time.

To recap where I am 13 months later, from Commission Junction I received a $17 check. Linkshare shows I have a $14.75 balance, but they don’t payout until you have accumulated $25.00. I haven’t seen any checks from Amazon either, although they say I’ve earned $12.39.

Google AdSense was a slow starter, but the pennies finally added up and I got my first check from them. (They payout at $100.00+). I should see my second check next month.

I was also blessed with a donation from Mark, at Creative Journey Cafe.

All in all, what I’ve “earned” (not received) has covered my overhead for my BlueHost account, domain names + renewals. By doing the math, I’m a little ahead of the “game” as long as I don’t put a value on the time I spend blogging. ((((laughs)))))

Interestingly, the money I have made was the result of my second blog. It’s a blog that receives nearly all of it’s traffic from search engines (organic traffic), and does not have a “community” of commenters. This tells me, if you can get your blog to receive organic traffic (by using SEO and keyword phrases, etc…), your chances of making money will increase.

The one problem with using keyword phrases (keywords), it forces you to change your writing style. In some ways, it can hinder your creativity.

So what have I learned?

I’ve learned, I don’t know how to make money blogging. LOL

Lesson Twelve: Money can be made with blogs. I believe search engine traffic is the key, and you need lots of it (thousands of visitors a day). Your subject matter must appeal either to the masses or to a specific niche of people (not bloggers).

At this point, the money I make is irrelevant, however, don’t tell my husband that. He believes this “hobby” of mine will pay for itself, and maybe than some. Let’s keep this just between us. :)

As for those pictures of the big checks, could they have been a Photoshop project? You decide.

Today’s Assignment:

Are you blogging for dollars? If so, is it working?

Have you discovered a great way to make money with a blog?

Or are you like me, and the money part of blogging has lost it appeal?


Photo Credit: d70focus’ photostream

83400425 3665333b3f m Blogging   Year One   Lesson Eleven
The amount of blogs online grows by thousands every day.

There is no way we can read, or even find them all, but we try.

Over the past year, I’ve read hundreds of blog posts (possibly thousands).

There’s some good stuff out there.

In the beginning, I remember reading posts written by seasoned bloggers. I was often in awe. Their posts were so eloquently written. Some intimidated me.

I would ask myself, “Can I ever be that good?”

I marveled at the dozens of comments they had, the massive amount of RSS feed readers, their high page rank, low Alexa rating (lower is better with Alexa), and their archives which were filled with hundreds of blog posts.

In someways I felt pretty “small”. I had zero comments, zero feed readers/subscribers, a 0/10 Google page rank, an Alexa rating that topped 2 million, and my archives were looking pretty pathetic.

My enthusiasm and motivation were quickly becoming depleted.

Finally I realized what was happening.

I had been comparing myself/my blog to longtime bloggers.

To set myself straight, I figuratively slapped myself upside the head.

I stopped visiting so many blogs, and concentrated on my own. I wrote from my heart and quit comparing my blog/myself to others.

It was then that I found my voice.

Lesson 11: We will always find blogs that are better than ours (in one way or the other). If we continually compare our blog/ourself to others, we will never be satisfied. We will always want more, even if we don’t know what more is. In the process of striving for perfection or trying to be like the “big boys/girls”, we often lose our voice.

Sometimes it’s better to stick close to home and play in our own sandbox.

Today’s Assignment

Do you look at other blogs and think, “the grass is greener on the other side”?

Do other blogs intimidate you and make you feel “less than:?

Do you want to be like the big boys/girls? Be popular?

Or have you already learned this lesson and and write from your heart?


Photo Credit: BlazerMan’s photostream
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