Posted by karooch on
August 7, 2008
Mid-week Mashup
Welcome to Scraps of Mind. I'm delighted to see you. Why not check out the site, and if you like what you see, subscribe to my RSS feed and get daily updates delivered to you. If you're not sure what the RSS thing is, then check out this 'RSS made easy' post. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing more of you.
Here’s a round up of snippets from the week.
Kangaroos can save you money
Last week I told you about the exciting news of Blog Mastermind reopening.
If you haven’t seen any of the videos, or read the Blueprint or listened to the million dollar blogger interview, you can start right now (it won’t cost anything) by going here -
Already over 300 people have joined and are busy studying the materials, interacting in the community forums and using the Social Traffic Club to drive traffic to their blogs.
But here’s the thing, Yaro explained to me that he wanted to charge in $USD, but his Australian bank would not accept the currency, and since it was so close to the opening of his program, he decided to just go with $AUD. So if you’re from the US that gives you an ongoing discount of at least 10% because of the currency conversion.
In case you don’t know, Yaro is from Australia, though he sounds a lot like a Canadian sometimes because of his parents. He did say that his bank would change in the near future, and as soon as $USD is accepted he would switch back. But he’ll honor whatever the price was when you joined. And I can vouch for that because that was what happened when I joined last year.
So if you’ve been considering joining the Blog Mastermind Program and you want to lock in the discount by paying in Australian dollars, you should join as soon as you can.
Scraps of Mind featured at Databazaar
I was a little bit excited when Databazaar asked to interview me. I created a special layout for the occasion and waited eagerly for publication.
Well they’ve published the story, as well as the layout and you can read it here.
I have to say, I’m tickled pink.
Guys Scrapbook too
Last week June from Scrapping by Design had a guest post written by Alun Maxwell who shared his thoughts on how guys feel about scrapbook designs.
Alun is not just your average Scrapbooking Widower, he’s a scrapbooker himself and runs Themed Scrapbook Idea so he has a pretty informed bunch of views to share.
The article is well worth a read and it made me wonder if we have any male scrapbookers amongst our own Scraps of Mind readership. If there are then I’d love to see a comment from you, just to wave the flag.
Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival
This round of the Blog Carnival was sadly very small but have a click over and check it out anyway. Perhaps you can submit some entries for the next round and really kick some digital scrapbooking goals.
Calling all Beginners to Digital Scrapbooking!
Learn how to digital scrapbook the easy way.
With no long and frustrating learning curve.
Step by Step Digital Scrapbook will show you how.
Posted by karooch on
July 28, 2008
Return of Blog Mastermind
Great news for people everywhere who want to build their blog into a successful ongoing business.
Yaro Starak has reopened the doors on his Blog Mastermind Program.
Last December 2007, Yaro welcomed his second intake to this program before closing the doors to any new students.
As of Tuesday 29 August 2008 the Blog Mastermind doors will reopen to welcome new students.
Why am I excited?
Well those of you who have been following Scraps of Mind for some time will know that I was one of the first students when Yaro launched his Blog Mastermind Program in July 2007. I graduated six months later and as a graduate I have lifetime access to the course materials as well as any new material that Yaro has added to Blog Mastermind in this relaunch. So I’m looking forward to checking out all the new resources.
What is Blog Mastermind?
BMM (as students affectionately refer to it) is a fantastic course that shows you how to set up and build a blog to make it a successful business. Yaro is a great teacher and there is no hype or bull***t about it. It’s just great learnings each week which build on each other until you have a great workable business model.
Yaro’s aim is to build a system that will enable you to earn a full time income whilst only working part time. His focus is on lifestyle rather than get-rich-quick schemes.
And as someone who has completed his course and implemented his learnings I can only endorse his approach. It was a fantastic experience for me and has more than repaid itself.
But make no mistake, BMM is not about sitting back and letting it all happen. Each class comes with activities that you need to complete before moving on to the next. I think that’s one of the strengths of the course, because if you don’t take action then you can’t move forward. So Yaro provides the stimulus for you to work and build a blogging business, if you will.
Anyway, if this sounds like something that you can use to follow that dream to financial independence, you can find out more about Blog Mastermind here.
But even if you don’t feel ready for the Blog Mastermind Program, you should definitely watch Yaro’s free video on Conversion Blogging because it’s packed with great strategies for creating a business model out of your blog.
Low in sugar and guaranteed to be totally hype-free!
Posted by karooch on
July 12, 2008
Where Does the RSS Button Go?
Many Scraps of Mind readers have their own blogs.
Some are personal journals, but a large number are written by folk who have a strong desire to build their readership and increase their traffic.
RSS feeds are a seemingly simple way to do this. But there’s more to increasing your readership than just banging an RSS button into your side-bar and forgetting about it.
Jacob Share is a contestant in DailyBlogTips Blogging Idol Competition and he has set up a group writing project on his blog to gather RSS tips from all over the blogosphere. So I thought I’d add my five cents worth.
For those of you who don’t know anything about RSS I suggest you take a moment to read my article Keep Up-to-Date with Your Favourite Blogs Using RSS to learn what it is and how it can help you keep up with all that’s going on with your favourite blogs.
So how do you encourage your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed?
Now we come to the RSS button.
There are RSS buttons that you can use all over the Internet that you can download freely. Some are fancy and some are the classic orange icon such as in my side-bar.
The first thing I would recommend is that if your blog is not aimed at geeky or super blog-savvy readers don’t go fancy.
Most people who know what RSS is recognize the orange icon. And whilst it might not be as cool as an icon that looks like it’s sinking below the virtual waves, or one that’s beautifully colour coordinated with your blog theme, keeping it simple and straightforward is a good thing. It will help your readers to spot it amongst all your blinkies and banners and when they see it, there won’t be any confusion in their minds as to what it is.
So now, where do you stick the button?
Hey! Let’s keep it nice.
Well the prevailing wisdom says that if you want to grow your RSS subscribers you should place the button at the top of your blog. Either in your banner, or right at the top of your sidebar.
But I’m going against the prevailing wisdom.
I had my RSS button sitting right at the top of my side bar for over six months. And during that time my subscriber numbers slowly crept up to 100. It was a long, slow journey (and many thanks to all of you who were part of that journey). And when I reached 100 it was like I had hit a glass ceiling. I hung around 100-110 for about three months. It wasn’t as though my traffic wasn’t increasing because my stats were healthy and were showing a steady upwards trend. But readers weren’t subscribing to my RSS feed.
Finally I decided to stop worrying about building my RSS subscriptions and I moved the button further down on my sidebar. Down to ‘below the fold’ which means that you can’t see it unless you scroll down. And I stopped paying attention to it.
Within a matter of weeks, the number had doubled!
I thought there must be something wrong with the counter widget and I checked it out on Feedburner. Nope, the numbers were correct.
I was gobsmacked! For months I had given my RSS button pride of place on my blog and had limited success. And now that I had all but thrown it away, it was performing like a star attraction.
Is it sort of ‘a watched RSS number never grows’ thing?
Well after some thought, I noticed that where my RSS button was now located, way down in my sidebar, was roughly the same place where most of my posts finished. So readers who had read to the bottom of a post (as you are doing) found the button right there handy as they finished reading.
And that seems to make a lot more sense to me. A new reader is not going to be interested in subscribing to your blog feed until they have read at least one of your posts.
And once you’ve finished reading you look for the next place to click. I know I would rarely scroll back up to the top of the page again.
So when you’re thinking about where to place your RSS button to get the best results. Consider this: if you mainly post short articles and posts then perhaps positioning the button high up on your sidebar will attract the notice of your readers. But if your posts are usually a bit longer, then I suggest you try experimenting with locating it further down your sidebar. So it’s handy for your reader to click on straight after they have just enjoyed your killer article.
The moral of this RSS story:
Don’t always assume the prevailing wisdom is what’s best for you. Check it out for yourself and make your own call.
By the way, if you feel inspired to subscribe to my feed and get Scraps of Mind articles delivered to your Google Reader or Bloglines or even into your email box, my orange button is in the sidebar to the right or you can click on the link just under this article.
Hope this has been helpful.
Other Related Articles:
Let your Blog Stumble - it won’t hurt
Posted by karooch on
July 9, 2008
Entrecard: Advertise Your Blog for Free!
It’s hard to get exposure for your blog in today’s bubbling melting pot of a blogosphere.
And it’s even harder if you’re a new blogger just starting out. Build it and they will come just doesn’t work.
Well there’s a great little blog advertising scheme that might just help you out.
It’s called Entrecard and it’s been around for about six months or so, although I’ve only just recently cottoned on to it myself.
This is the way it works.
You sign up your blog at the Entrecard site and you upload a 125×125 pixel graphic which is your blog’s advertisement.
It creates a piece of code for you that you copy and past into a text widget and display on your blog. If you look over on my sidebar you can see what I mean.
Now as you hop around the blogosphere, whenever you see an Entrecard widget you click on the bar at the bottom. This is called ‘dropping your card’. It’s the same principle as leaving your calling card with someone. And every time you drop your card you get credits in your account. The more you drop, the more credits you build up.
Other people will drop on you and they will also request advertising on your blog. When that happens, your graphic will be replaced by their graphic for a day. This also earns you more credits. And you have to approve or reject their request before it will appear on your blog. That means you don’t wind up with links to sexy photo sites or other inappropriate ads on your blog.
And what do you do with all these credits you’re accumulating?
Well you find blogs that are also Entrecard members and that you think are likely to have a readership that would be interested in your blog and you request an ad spot with them.
Easy peasy.
Now I’ve only been playing with this for a week so I’m no expert. But one of things I’ve noticed is that a lot of people put the Entrecard widget a long way down on their sidebar. Personally I wouldn’t bother placing an ad where it probably won’t be seen by anyone. So I recommend that if you decide to join, you place your widget in a spot where it gets good exposure. If people don’t want to advertise on your blog then you won’t build your credits as fast.
And if you can accumulate a lot of credits quickly you can start advertising on more prominent blogs (their credit advertising rate will be higher) and that will obviously give you more exposure.
And all of this has cost you nothing.
Plus it’s a bit of fun hunting for the Entrecard Widgets on all the blogs you go to.
So if you’re looking to get some extra exposure for your blog but you don’t have dollars to spend, why not check out Entrecard. You have nothing to lose. Just click on the Gold Bar at the bottom of my Entrecard Widget and you’ll be taken to the registration page.
Other Related Articles:
Who Wants to Increase Their Scrapbooking Profile?
Where do you hang out on the Net?
Step by Step Digital Scrapbook
The digital scrapbooking site that’s designed especially for beginners.
Learn how to digital scrapbook and create wonderful art works from your photos quickly and easily on your computer.
No mess, no special workspace needed, no cleaning up.
Posted by karooch on
June 21, 2008
June Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival
With all of the dust and confusion of my site crash last week I almost missed spotting this round of the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival.
It’s a small carnival this round but well worth visiting and checking out the links.
You’ll find it at Stacey’s Digital Scrapbooking. So pop over and have a look.
Why not help to make the next round even bigger and better?
You can do that by submitting some links that you think would be useful to digital scrapbookers.
They can be from your own posts or from blogs that you like to read.
It’s a great way of helping blogs to grow as they get new readers.
So let’s spread the love and the scrapbook ideas around.
If you want to submit a contribution to the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival (the next one is on July 1) then here is the submission form.
Other Related Articles:
What Everybody Ought to Know About Blog Carnivals
Let your Blog Stumble … it won’t hurt!
Who Wants to Increase Their Scrapbooking Profile?
If you’re a paper scrapbooker and you’d like to give digital scrapbooking a try so you too can do cool stuff like this, then click over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbook
A site designed specifically for absolute beginners to digital scrapbooking. Once you start, you’ll be totally hooked.
