2-cents

Top 10

Aside

Top Reasons People Blog

 

Thanks for checking out my very first blog posting.

In deciding to join the millions of others in the blogosphere, I conducted some personal research to become better informed about blogging; more specifically, I intended to research what people blogged about. However, because this is my virgin blog, I thought it appropriate instead, to blog about why people blog. To my surprise, I found that fewer people blog to keep a record of personal events, thoughts, and feelings than I anticipated.

Then, what do bloggers blog about?

Bloggers Blog to:

  1. share product reviews to other consumers. Consumer Reports, E-Bay, and Amazon’s ‘feedback’ and ‘reviews’ are good examples of product review blogging. This type of blogging is amazingly helpful to other consumers considering purchasing specific products. It can save a consumer from making a purchase that they will not be happy with or may be the deciding factor in purchasing a product that they normally would not purchase.
  2. offer instructions. Instructions can range from operating devices, installing equipment, assembling furniture, simplify driving directions, and even on how to blog. Bloggers get to offer their expertise and are thus heard in the process, and readers are educated in new areas.
  3. Market their products and services. Much business owns and entrepreneurs use blogging as a way to attract people to their websites or to make their product better known.
  4. Establish themselves as an expert in a field or niche. This topic or field is usually related to their occupation and/or education and these bloggers rarely stray far from their subject of expertise.
  5. Remain in contact with friends and family. Some bloggers post events of their life, to do lists, calendars, a new baby’s progress, and even recipes to friends and family members. Blogging offers a way to stay close without having to devote a plethora of time to individual people and allows others to keep abreast in your happenings. This is a great tool which allows one to feel physically close to loved ones when physical distance is great.
  6. Network with new people.  In today’s business one can never have too many contacts. However, with today’s busy lifestyle, it is hard to find time to socialize even when we are mingling to increase our business network. Blogging allows business-minded individuals to do so without leaving their desk, putting on that winning smile, or doing much work at all.
  7. Receive free feedback. Feedback regarding our business ideas and ventures are critical to success; however, this type of constructive criticism can be costly. Unless, of course, you are crafty and look for it in the form of feedback generated from your winning blog.
  8. Allow customers to get to know you, your business, and your product. This helps to establish trust with the customer and allows for the customer and business to interact on an even keel. Not only do customers learn about promotions, sales, changes in business hours, new product lines, and prices, they also learn about you as a person, which is important to today’s consumer.
  9. Talk. Some people like to talk. Others have a plethora of things to say. Blogging allows you to “talk” about anything, anytime, anywhere, even when you have no immediate audience.
  10. Gain knowledge derived from the ideas and expertise of others. People love to include their thoughts and opinions, and even their expertise to other bloggers blog postings. Because of this, blogging is a great way to request advice on a situation, seek out answers to questions, gain insight on a topic, or to receive solutions to problems.

I, on the other hand, am blogging to learn more about the blogosphere, gain insight into social media marketing, and to satisfy a course requirement. In time, I plan on creating a regularly occurring blog centering on a specific topic of general interest within the realm or niche of either virtual assisting or web design and virtual marketing.

What do you blog about?

 

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Drop me a line telling me how I rank

Why Do You Blog?

Aside

Top Reasons People Blog

 

Thanks for checking out my very first blog posting.

In deciding to join the millions of others in the blogosphere, I conducted some personal research to become better informed about blogging; more specifically, I intended to research what people blogged about. However, because this is my virgin blog, I thought it appropriate instead, to blog about why people blog. To my surprise, I found that fewer people blog to keep a record of personal events, thoughts, and feelings than I anticipated.

Then, what do bloggers blog about?

Bloggers Blog to:

  1. share product reviews to other consumers. Consumer Reports, E-Bay, and Amazon’s ‘feedback’ and ‘reviews’ are good examples of product review blogging. This type of blogging is amazingly helpful to other consumers considering purchasing specific products. It can save a consumer from making a purchase that they will not be happy with or may be the deciding factor in purchasing a product that they normally would not purchase.
  2. offer instructions. Instructions can range from operating devices, installing equipment, assembling furniture, simplify driving directions, and even on how to blog. Bloggers get to offer their expertise and are thus heard in the process, and readers are educated in new areas.
  3. Market their products and services. Much business owns and entrepreneurs use blogging as a way to attract people to their websites or to make their product better known.
  4. Establish themselves as an expert in a field or niche. This topic or field is usually related to their occupation and/or education and these bloggers rarely stray far from their subject of expertise.
  5. Remain in contact with friends and family. Some bloggers post events of their life, to do lists, calendars, a new baby’s progress, and even recipes to friends and family members. Blogging offers a way to stay close without having to devote a plethora of time to individual people and allows others to keep abreast in your happenings. This is a great tool which allows one to feel physically close to loved ones when physical distance is great.
  6. Network with new people.  In today’s business one can never have too many contacts. However, with today’s busy lifestyle, it is hard to find time to socialize even when we are mingling to increase our business network. Blogging allows business-minded individuals to do so without leaving their desk, putting on that winning smile, or doing much work at all.
  7. Receive free feedback. Feedback regarding our business ideas and ventures are critical to success; however, this type of constructive criticism can be costly. Unless, of course, you are crafty and look for it in the form of feedback generated from your winning blog.
  8. Allow customers to get to know you, your business, and your product. This helps to establish trust with the customer and allows for the customer and business to interact on an even keel. Not only do customers learn about promotions, sales, changes in business hours, new product lines, and prices, they also learn about you as a person, which is important to today’s consumer.
  9. Talk. Some people like to talk. Others have a plethora of things to say. Blogging allows you to “talk” about anything, anytime, anywhere, even when you have no immediate audience.
  10. Gain knowledge derived from the ideas and expertise of others. People love to include their thoughts and opinions, and even their expertise to other bloggers blog postings. Because of this, blogging is a great way to request advice on a situation, seek out answers to questions, gain insight on a topic, or to receive solutions to problems.

I, on the other hand, am blogging to learn more about the blogosphere, gain insight into social media marketing, and to satisfy a course requirement. In time, I plan on creating a regularly occurring blog centering on a specific topic of general interest within the realm or niche of either virtual assisting or web design and virtual marketing.

What do you blog about?

 

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Drop me a line telling me how I rank

Evaluating Pinterest and more

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A whole new world has opened up to me this past year; specifically the virtual world of social media and similar platforms. I find each of these intriguing in its design, user, and niche. At first I registered with, and failed miserably at,  social media platform  that I could find on the web. I have since derived a new course of action, plan B, (No…no… I am not trying to prevent a potential pregnancy. All of these social networking platforms leave me little time for a sexual relationship, I can assure.)
Anyway, (Pulling myself back on the right track) I am researching each social network platform and carefully choosing those that best suit my interests and needs. I have recently begun looking at Pinterest in-depth and ran across a blog written by John Brandon titled “9 Tips to Boost your Business with Pinterest” that I found worthy of commenting upon and adding a few words to. First, however, I would like to state a few interesting facts.

Pinterest gets roughly 55 million, yes million, visitors a month. It is no wonder that businesses have turned to Pinterest to market their business. It is not uncommon for a new “business pinner” to report a 75% increase in the amount of traffic visiting their website after going “Picommerce.”  However, many business owners cannot figure out how to use a social media tool such as Pinterest to market their business. It is as simple as thinking “visual marketing.” Think of a commercial without any words or think opposite of radio advertising. John Brandon a content writer for INC. gives us nine great tips to using Pinterest that will boost a business. In short they are,

  1. Spend time
  2. Keep it simple
  3. Connect your physical presence with your online presence
  4. Make sure your business is a match
  5. Use other social nets to feed Pinterest
  6. 6.  Launch a daily pin theme
  7. 7.  Promote more than products
  8. Follow the big hitters
  9. Selective curating

I really like all of Johns Pinterest marketing ideas. Furthermore, his article is short and to the point; quality not quantity which goes double for Pinterest. The quality of your pins not the number of them is what matters. I also think that John’s suggestions are spot on. I had trouble stating “one strategy that can be used to market your business using Pinterest,” so I am going to work “outside the box” and repin (restate) two.

My first is John’s sixth; a daily blog theme. The idea of a weekly blog theme feels more adequate to me. I like this idea because you can also incorporate this into your blog by blogging on the same theme that week for uniformity.

I also love John’s suggestion to create your pins so that every pinned image includes a link back to your site. I think this is great. Otherwise, the pinner may not even know where the image originated from. That is if you are lucky! Lucky by having a whole string of reposts of your original content so much so that to find its home would be a daunting task; better to provide that information for the pinner It also helps to “give credit where credit is due.” Moving right along, I absolutely love another of John’s suggestions. of course, pin the focal point of your business. John, however, goes one step further and tells us to pin outside of our business’s expertise or what products and/or services your business sells. Now, that does not mean to go crazy and pin anything and everything that catches your fancy. Be selective; remember quality NOT quantity. John tells us that, “the daily themed pins usually lead to repeat visitors.” This makes total sense to me. Think about a book you bought last year. The sequel is getting ready to be released. It makes sense to expect that you, one who had read the first book in the series, will become a repeat customer by purchasing this book in the sequel. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to have my current customers become repeat, or loyal (brand loyalty) customers then to repeatedly have a plethora of new customers who never have no sense of brand loyalty and who never become repeat customers. Here is that quality vs. quantity again.

The other thing I liked about John’s article is that he provided frequent, real life, examples throughout.

John mentions nearly a dozen businesses that have gone to Pinterest for marketing; including seventy. Seventy not only promotes themselves and their teen services on Pinterest they also market using 8 other social media  avenues as shown below in the order in which they appeared on Google’s “Hit List”:

Related articles

One Person’s Account of their Addictions

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One Person’s Honest Account,

of Their Addictions,

 Through The Years.

ImageImageImage

I ran across the following blog when I was blog trolling instead of working and lo-and-behold.

Where did “lo-and-behold” originate from anyway? And am I even saying it right? <Shaking head in confusion>

Anyway, I began a reply to the blog in another writing application just to discover that comments are closed. It’s to be expected; things of this nature are very typical of my life.

Instead, I am posting my comment as a new blog thread. Here goes..

 

Daily Prompt:

Can’t Get Enough

by michelle w. on October 9, 2013

Have you ever been addicted to anything, or worried that you were? Have you ever spent too much time and effort on something that was a distraction from your real goals? Tell us about it.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us ADDICTING.

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.


Haven’t we all been addicted to something or other in our lifetime? If your answer is no, then you are certainly the exception the rule or you are lying like Pinocchio.

I have, and have had, too many addictions in my life. The worst addiction I ever picked up has to be tobacco. I have been smoking for what feels like eternity and I have no desire to quit. I would surmise that this could very well be what is named my “lifelong” addiction. In addition to the rock-bottom, hands-down most addicting habit I have ever “picked up”, it is also the 

  • most harmful,
  • most controlling,
  • most expensive
  • most noticeable
  • most socially stigmatizing and
  • most undesirable

 Habit out there. All of this, and I haven’t even mentioned how distastefully it smells or how harmful it can be to others. (Oh, I just did. Silly me!)

It is amazing how quickly one can become dependent upon nicotine and how difficult and time-consuming it is to break the addiction.

 Hey, is this a blog on addiction or on the reasons why smoking tobacco is not a good idea?

 Moving right along..

I seem to be addicted to one other drug which is also harmful to the body; however, to a lesser degree.  This drug is caffeine. My addiction seems to run primarily in the forms of coffee and tea, in that order. After caffeine comes vitamins. Yes, really! I have been taking a regime of vitamins since I was 16. I would not call that an addiction, no. However, when you run out or are in a location that your daily V’s are not in and you can’t focus or concentrate because you have not taken them, I would call that bordering on addiction. At the very least, I would call it unnatural, unhealthy, and unusual.

Also, I went through a period in my late teens and early 20’s when I was addicted to the internet and AOL chat rooms. Was that ever a horrible period of my life! I was in these “rooms” from morning until night and sometimes all night as well. We did nothing but sit around and wait for people to enter so that they can sit around with us and wait for more people to enter. I cannot now understand, nor comprehend my fascination or addiction to these “rooms.” I now wish that I could take back the hundreds upon hundreds of hours I spent living a completely “cyber” existence, ignoring the real world in the process. It is possible that I actually continue my addiction to the computer; however, if this is so, I do so in a much more constructive way. Today, when I am in front of my computer, which is often, I am doing something either necessary or productive; shopping, homework, reading/writing mail, paying bills, research etc..

 

So, there you have it; one person’s honest account of their addictions through the years.

Top reasons why people blog

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Top Reasons People Blog

 blogging mindmap

Thanks for checking out my very first blog posting.

In deciding to join the millions of others in the blogosphere, I conducted some personal research to become better informed about blogging; more specifically, I intended to research what people blogged about. However, because this is my virgin blog, I thought it appropriate instead, to blog about why people blog. To my surprise, I found that fewer people blog to keep a record of personal events, thoughts, and feelings than I anticipated.

Then, what do bloggers blog about?

Bloggers Blog to:

  1. share product reviews to other consumers. Consumer Reports, E-Bay, and Amazon’s ‘feedback’ and ‘reviews’ are good examples of product review blogging. This type of blogging is amazingly helpful to other consumers considering purchasing specific products. It can save a consumer from making a purchase that they will not be happy with or may be the deciding factor in purchasing a product that they normally would not purchase.
  2. offer instructions. Instructions can range from operating devices, installing equipment, assembling furniture, simplify driving directions, and even on how to blog. Bloggers get to offer their expertise and are thus heard in the process, and readers are educated in new areas.
  3. Market their products and services. Much business owns and entrepreneurs use blogging as a way to attract people to their websites or to make their product better known.
  4. Establish themselves as an expert in a field or niche. This topic or field is usually related to their occupation and/or education and these bloggers rarely stray far from their subject of expertise.
  5. Remain in contact with friends and family. Some bloggers post events of their life, to do lists, calendars, a new baby’s progress, and even recipes to friends and family members. Blogging offers a way to stay close without having to devote a plethora of time to individual people and allows others to keep abreast in your happenings. This is a great tool which allows one to feel physically close to loved ones when physical distance is great.
  6. Network with new people.  In today’s business one can never have too many contacts. However, with today’s busy lifestyle, it is hard to find time to socialize even when we are mingling to increase our business network. Blogging allows business-minded individuals to do so without leaving their desk, putting on that winning smile, or doing much work at all.
  7. Receive free feedback. Feedback regarding our business ideas and ventures are critical to success; however, this type of constructive criticism can be costly. Unless, of course, you are crafty and look for it in the form of feedback generated from your winning blog.
  8. Allow customers to get to know you, your business, and your product. This helps to establish trust with the customer and allows for the customer and business to interact on an even keel. Not only do customers learn about promotions, sales, changes in business hours, new product lines, and prices, they also learn about you as a person, which is important to today’s consumer.
  9. Talk. Some people like to talk. Others have a plethora of things to say. Blogging allows you to “talk” about anything, anytime, anywhere, even when you have no immediate audience.
  10. Gain knowledge derived from the ideas and expertise of others. People love to include their thoughts and opinions, and even their expertise to other bloggers blog postings. Because of this, blogging is a great way to request advice on a situation, seek out answers to questions, gain insight on a topic, or to receive solutions to problems.

I, on the other hand, am blogging to learn more about the blogosphere, gain insight into social media marketing, and to satisfy a course requirement. In time, I plan on creating a regularly occurring blog centering on a specific topic of general interest within the realm or niche of either virtual assisting or web design and virtual marketing.

What do you blog about?

 

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Drop me a line telling me how I rank