African Doctors Love Their Motorcycles
Doctors in Africa must reach remote villages lacking roads. At 1 doctor per 6,000 people, there’s only 1 way to get it done, a motorcycle. Needless to say, they love their motorcycles.
Man, we’ve got it made in America.
Afghanistan. The Only Sensible Ideas I’ve Heard.
This guy isn't going to cut it. Wikipedia
After listening to Steven Pressfield, I believe that there are 2 options for Afghanistan, agree with the ideas in this video, or an all-out bloody stomping of the entire country.
The all-out bloody stomping is not going to happen. The world will not stand for it. The only other solution would be what Mr. Pressfield is discussing. Sadly, I don’t think his ideas will ever happen. It’s just not in our politicians or political parties will to make these ideas come to reality. Without one of these two options, I fear we will lose this battle.
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How to Blog Day 31. Make a Plan for Next Month.
- Image via CrunchBase
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
Day 31 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog is about making a plan for next month.
The last day of the book tells us to make a plan for next month. It gives an example of a Google Calendar and some reference to their website where more discussion takes place about what to do daily. DO NOT follow the calendar that they give. If you do, you’re going to end up with a blog that is just like every other blog on the Internet.
Consider the things that should be done daily and consider maintenance tasks that should be done weekly and monthly. I have been learning from experience that promotion should be daily for any blog. Don’t be embarrassed about getting noticed, that’s what you started a blog for. It’s not a private matter.
I am going to work on my plan and refine my review of the book. If you’ve followed along, I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. If Blogging is something you’re interested in, buy 31 Days To Build A Better Blog and try a month of following along.
How to Blog Day 30. Monitor Your Stats
- Image via Wikipedia
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
Day 30 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog tells Bloggers to monitor our stats. For this you need Google Analytics. There are other packages and there are a few statistics that Google Analytics will not cover. The book covers some of these as well.
Be warned that it can be depressing in the early days of the blog. You do a bunch of work doing what you think will be interesting, and the blog barely gets a visitor. You rarely get a comment. Now that I’ve read this book, I know why. You have to ask or tell your readers to comment! Low stats are no reason to quit. I’ve written some posts which received a huge amount of traffic and I’ve even spun off other blogs once I’ve realized that there is an interest in the subject. You have to be patient and you must promote to get traffic.
Another aspect of low stats in the beginning is that sometimes the numbers climb exponentially over time. Your quality posts will start to be passed around and the “she told two friends and then she told two friends” effect starts to take place.
The book will take you through the 17 stats and shine some light on what they mean. The book is a little light on the subject. If you’ve never dealt with stats before it will be helpful. I find the stats to be very interesting. You will be surprised at where your visitors come from and how they ended up on your page.
One of the most important stats are the keywords that were entered to find your website. You can use these keywords that may have been misses to tailor your blog to create content that suits what people are looking for.
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How to Write a Blog Day 29. Make a Plan to Boost Readership.
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
Day 29 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog tells the aspiring Blogger to make a plan to boost readership. Sounds important so far!
- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The book’s instructions are basically to get involved with other websites and social media to build a presence. Long detailed posts with numerous references to other websites are supposed to tell us how to accomplish your presence. After that, the author tells us to limit this time. Don’t spend to much time and don’t let yourself “drift” into other things on other websites.
Drift is a big problem for me. I end up following other websites for way to long and my own websites suffer. I spend way to much time giving free content to news websites. News websites matter less and less everyday and opinions on them matter even less than the news. It’s a place to vent and venting doesn’t earn a dime. I’ll take note of this “drift” warning, the rest of the ideas are going to take a little longer to digest. I am reading the first edition. The second edition that I’m going to purchase soon is supposed to take a different take on this.
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Bellaire, Ohio Toll Bridge to Be Demolished
Bellaire, Ohio Toll Bridge To Be Demolished Soon.
I took a picture of this interesting bridge in Bellaire, Ohio a few years back and didn’t take much time to learn about it’s history. I was working on photos for Belmont County, Ohio. It turns out it’s pretty significant and there are many not happy about The Bellaire Toll Bridge being demolished.
It is an interesting historical bridge. In fact the entire area is full of interesting and historical structures in Bellaire, Ohio and Wheeling, WV. The nation was built with everything going west going through this area. Steel was produced here and not far away in Pittsburgh.
The quality and architecture that put this area together for the railroads and the highways is amazing. Our nations finest craftsman did the work. The Italian stoneworkers left their mark all over Bellaire, Ohio.
The strange thing about this bridge is that it is still usable! It just needs ramps to it and it’s a go. Salt was never used on it and the rust you see is only surface rust. The concrete deck has deteriorated, but the most costly parts of the bridge are intact. It’s only reason for demolition is that the Coast Guard claims it’s a navigational hazard. If it’s not being used, they’re correct.
As I watch the traffic on I-70 pile up, you have to wonder why every alternative isn’t used to keep the traffic flowing on this old bridge. As soon as they demolish this, you can bet the government will be hitting the tax payers with a bill for a new bridge.
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Amazon Has Kindle for PC Now.
- Image by abyteofozz via Flickr
I don’t know how I missed this, but Amazon now has Kindle for PC software. The software is free, the books are definitely NOT! They came out with it in November 2009. From what I’m reading, you’re able to purchase Kindle books and read them on a Kindle, Iphone, or PC. If you have Windows 7, there are some added benefits like using hand gestures to zoom in and out.
I was never a fan of the Kindle. I didn’t want to pay a huge amount for a reader, then pay again to read books. I thought that if they wanted to produce a proprietary format that was only good for their books, the reader should be cheap or free. I had plenty to read in e-book format on the PC.
Kindle does have the highest quality content available. At the prices, it should be! Some books are worth the price though. With this software, I’ll end up purchasing a few and see how it goes soon.
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How to Blog Day 28. Write a Review Post.
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
Write a Review. Image by LucasTheExperience via Flickr
Day 28 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog instructs the blogger to write a review post. Common sense for most niches, but not all.
The book suggests reviewing anything related to your niche. If you’re doing a parenting blog, do a toy for example. The book gives many different ways that you can give opinions and reviews of different things. Most important, this is where you can make your money.
A good review is an excellent way to drop an affiliate product. Keep in mind, you have to earn it. You have to show your knowledge and expertise for many reviews to mean anything to a reader. You can get more bang for your review by comparing different products.
There is an idea that if your an affiliate, you’re not legitimate. Other sources are FAR more biased as they have to work hard to get advertisers. That doesn’t seem to matter. Many readers feel that you bloggers just don’t have that industry expertise no matter what. You can squash that by presenting all of the competition’s products too!
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How to Blog Day 27. Hunt for Dead Links
Broken links suck. Image by yewenyi via Flickr
Day 27 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog tells us to simply remove dead links.
There is a plug-in for WordPress called Broken Link Checker that helps you find them. It’s a simple process.
Google and other search engines demote you a little for leaving bad links in your blog. It’s also annoying for the reader. It shows that you have not been to the post in a while yourself. Take some time and clean up your blog.
I usually take this opportunity to glance over the article while I am there too. I’ve even deleted a post! If it’s so old that the the related links have gone bad, check to see if there’s been any traffic for it. If you don’t think that the post has retained quality, remove it altogether. No sense having posts that you yourself have lost interest in.
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How to Blog Day 26. Improve Another Blog.
Day 26 of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog suggests improving another blog. No, we’re not heading of into some weird “Law Of Attraction” stuff. We’re simply helping someone else and that will in turn help our own blog out.
Image via Wikipedia Lend a helping hand to another blogger
The book suggests -
- Making mention of a favored reader’s blog on another forum.
- Share an affiliate program or method that has helped you.
- Give some suggestions for them to write about.
- Place some useful content on their blog.
- and more…
You see, many of these things help both you and the other blogger. It creates a sense of community and helps out. You’re not on your own blogging and if you are, you’re in big trouble. If you have chosen a niche carefully, there will not be to many true competitors. For example, if you’re doing a blob about motorcycle clothes, there are thousands of motorcycle related blogs that you can work with that are not going to be a direct competitor for that niche.
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