Free Ticket To Izea Fest

Early last month, I started a giveaway for 2 IzeaFest tickets, holding onto a third and hoping I could come up with some creative way of giving it away.  And I’ve finally decided on giving it away at Blogher.

If you’ve never hear of IzeaFest, you are really missing out!  It covers a wide variety of topics dealing with blogging, but most importantly, this year, it is offering every attendee a free pass to Sea World Orlando on the Sunday of the event.

You really can’t pass up a free ticket to Sea World!

To find out more about IzeaFest, click here.

How To Enter

Entering to win a free ticket to IzeaFest 09 at Blogher is super easy.  Simply find me, and give me your business card.  Much to the warning from Backpacking dad on his How To Attend Blogher As A Dude post, I’ll be the one wearing cargo shorts, and probably an Izea t-shirt.

Might even be cool if Izea gave me a t-shirt to wear to Blogher that said something like “Ask me how to get a free ticket to IzeaFest 2009″.  *Wink *Wink

When I get back home from Blogher (carrying my huge stash of business cards), I’ll mix them all up, throw them in a big pile, close my eyes, and randomly draw one card.

The owner of that card will win the Free Ticket to IzeaFest.

If you’ve already purchased a ticket to IzeaFest or won one from someone else, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to draw another name to win.  What fun would an event be where one person horded all of the tickets?

Are you going to Blogher? Leave me a comment, letting me know.

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Winner Number 1

The first winner of a Free IzeaFest ticket is Anne-Marie Nichols of www.the-write-spot.com.  You can also find her on Twitter under the name amnichols.  How convenient.

Anne-Marie seems to be doing very well for herself with her many blogs and social media profiles.  I’m sure she will bring a lot to the IzeaFest conference.

Winner Number 2

Winner number two of a Free IzeaFest ticket is Stacie Haight Connerty of thedivinemissmommy.com. You can also find her on Twitter under the name StacieinAtlanta.  With over 12,000 twitter followers, she must have something interesting to say.

Stacie is also doing very well with her blog and social media profiles.

Win A Free Ticket To IzeaFest 2009

Congratulations to the winners and remember I still have one more ticket to give away, so make sure you continue visiting my blog or subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss your chance to win a Free IzeaFest 2009 ticket.

Remember, if you aren’t interested in possibly missing the chance to attend IzeaFest because you’re waiting on winning a ticket, you can alway go ahead and buy a ticket to IzeaFest 09 here.

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And thanks to the marvelous workings of my Twitter friend Jeff Peak (you can follow him here), I have a new design, that truly stands out from most other business cards.  I, of course, made a few minor text changes myself.

Your Thoughts

Of course, I could never settle on the final touches without getting your input.  After all, you are the reason I write.

So here are pictures of the front and back of the card.  Let me know what you think!

Like it? Don’t Like it? Any suggestions?

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I have 3 Gold passes to Affiliate Summit East in New York City.  These passes normally cost $399, so a free one could be the difference in whether you can go or not.

What’s Affiliate Summit East?

For those of you who don’t know, here is an exerpt straight from the Affiliate Summit website:

“Affiliate Summit East, the premier affiliate marketing conference, is taking place August 9-11, 2009 in New York City.

This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

The keynote speaker for Monday, August 10 will be Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, and the keynote for Tuesday, August 11 will be Peter Shankman, founder and CEO of The Geek Factory.

Our charity partner for Affiliate Summit East 2009 is Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City.

Where: Hilton New York
When: August 9-11, 2009″

How To Enter

Entering to win is as simple as hitting a few keys on your keyboard.  Here are the three ways to enter:

1. Copy and Paste the following on Twitter: (1 entry)

- “I just entered to win a Free Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit East from @steven_sanders .  RT to enter to win. http://tinyurl.com/mlfnxl”

2. Write a blog post telling others about Affiliate Summit East and about this giveaway. (3 entries)

3. Join my Izea Insider group, Izea Mafia, and claim your blog on Social Spark. (5 entries)

* Giveaway ends July 20, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Make sure you visit tomorrow to find out who won the Free Passes to IzeaFest 2009!

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Not only has this given me a break so I can come back to this blog fresh rather than worrying about blogger burn-out, but it’s also been part of an experiment.

An experiment to find out just how my subscribers and social media followers react to a strong blog that pumps out great content every single day, then disappears for a month.

The Effects On My Blog

Yes, when you stop writing content for you blog for a month’s time, you’re going to lose traffic.  My traffic numbers didn’t totally go away, but they did dwindle down quite a bit.

The key to keeping your numbers high when you take a blog vacation?

Work on your backlinks.  Be everywhere.

The more places that are linked to you blog, the more links of yours show up in Google, the more traffic you’ll get even when you’re not writing.

But don’t expect to build that traffic overnight.  It takes months, and even years to build enough backlinks to significantly keep traffic flowing when you’re away.

My subscriber count while not showing an astonishing increase, did actually show an increase rather than a decrease in subscribers.  Which begs the question of whether all of the advice that’s been taught about how subscribers will leave if you don’t keep a consistant writing is really flawed.

From my experiment, I’ve concluded that subscriber numbers aren’t effected by a disappearance of one month.  But the results could change if a blogger was gone for a longer period of time.

The Effects On Social Media

The effects my disappearance has had on my social media profiles is actually quite impressive.

I’ve increased twitter followers by at least 200 since my month-long disappearance.

The best way to do this?

Use websites that compliment your use of Twitter.  Like Twitter Follower and others.  They aren’t just here to look pretty.  They actually can work in ways you haven’t though about before.

Have you taken a break from blogging before?  How long?  And what effects did you experience?

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I’m picturing the biggest and most popular blog the world has ever known!

Co-blogging, even if the authors aren’t big names in the industry, are marketed and maintained better than a single authored blog.  And I believe that as more and more people start becoming interested in making money online, the best approach for most would be to team up and kill it on one blog.

If you look at your blog as a real business it only makes sense that co-blogging will only get bigger.

Just like with a business, you don’t run everything.  You figure out what area you’re weak in, then hire someone else to do it.

With blogging, you may be an awesome writer, but have no clue about affiliate marketing, so it would make good business sense to hire someone very proficient in that area; giving your blog an even more powerful driving force.

Here are 4 benefits of co-blogging:

1. Multiple times the marketing power - It’s hard enough to market something by yourself, but imagine how much marketing you can get done if you doubled your efforts.
2. Multiple times the content - As a single blogger, many find it difficult to post consistantly over a long period of time.  By increasing the number of authors you have on your blog, the job of consistantly posting great content gets extremely easier.
3. Multiple time the knowledge - Let’s face it, no one knows everything.  But 3-4 people could know quite a bit more than just one.  Having more than one author for a particular niche can open up ideas that a single blogger might not have thought of.
4. Multiple times the time - The biggest problem most single bloggers have is the time needed to build and market their blog successfully.  With multiple authors, you effectively increase the time  you have by twice as much if not more.  What might have taken you 2 hours to do could now only take 1 for each of you with 2 authors.

Leading By Example

I recently started a new blog geared toward my local community, but I don’t do it by myself.  My wife is also an author, and in only 2 days of the blog being up, we’ve already made 27 posts, and saw traffic and subscriber numbers that aren’t typical when a single author starts a new blog.

We are leveraging the power of both of our networks, and it has helped a lot!

You can check out the new blog here: www.helloky.com

What are your thoughts on co-blogging?  Do you co-blog?

I’ve not been on any social media sites, there’s been no blog posts, no commenting, etc.

It’s not because I’ve given up on anything… because I haven’t.

It’s because I’m trying to expand by getting smaller.  Or more like, going local.

The Results Of A Split Personality

It seems I have two passions in life when it comes to what I want to blog about.

1. Making Money Online
2. Helping others find interesting things to do where I live.

The first passion is something I’m already doing with this blog.  I’ve managed to successfully make money online and I love helping others do the same.

The second passion is something that I wasn’t currently doing… until now.

My Newest Blog

I’ve been really working hard to set up and get a new blog running that is targeted toward my local hometown area.

Not many people around here are interested in blogging and making money doing it, so there was never really a great way to connect with any of the local community through this blog.

My ultimate goal with blogging has always been to better connect with others.  I can make money online in so many other ways than blogging.  In fact, I’m already doing it.

So creating a blog where I can really connect locally was very important for me.

It’s not loaded down with content yet, but it’s slowly building up.

If you have some time, check out my newest blog geared toward my hometown of Western KY.

www.helloKY.com

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

I know it’s been preached to you more times than you care to admit.  I’ve even done it.

Shouldn’t you put your focus onto only one blog and really try to build it?

For most, the answer is yes.

If you have trouble running one blog and keeping it maintained, then you probably only need to stick with one blog.  But for those that can make the time to put 100% effort into 2 blogs, then go for it.

If you can handle multiple blogs, remain passionate about them both, and keep fresh content flowing on each, then it’s very easy to double or even triple your income (depending on the popularity of your niche, and you expertise).

I’d love to know what you think of my new blog.  Let me hear it with a comment.

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Like giving birth, blogging can be a beautiful and wonderful experience.  The shear power that a blog can have over someone else is amazing.  But like giving birth, blogging successfully takes time and hard work.

There are many things that have to come together perfectly to give birth to a blog powerful enough to persuade readers to listen to what you have to say.

Blogging really is like giving birth!

Planting The Seed

Like giving birth to a new baby, blogging has to start somewhere.  There is no magical creature or bird that delivers on a certain day of the year.

Usually this is the most exciting time of blogging, as the new blogger has their own great ideas about writing, building a community, and possibly making enough money to stay at home instead of working a 9-5 job.

When planting the seed for your blog, make sure you write out your goals on paper, then come up with a physical plan to carry out these goals.  Be specific.  Being too broad now, and even choosing the wrong path you want to take will have a major effect on your blog later.

Nurturing Your Creation

Once you’ve decided your blog topic, who your target market will be, what platform you intend on using, your blog’s name, etc. You’ll be ready to start nurturing your blog.

Shaping your blog into what you want it to eventually become involves thinking about design, the psychology of the colors, your logo, developing your brand, and so much more.

Putting the time and effort into shaping your blog now will pay off when your readers start pouring in.

Providing Food

In order for a baby in the womb to grow, the mother has to constantly pump in food and nutrients.  The same can be said for your blog.

By constantly pumping in nutritious (great) content, you’re blog will grow.  The more you put in and the more often you do it, the bigger and faster it will grow.  And to become a true authority blogger and achieve real success, you have to have a lot of content.

Content is King!

Introducing It To The World

While content may be king, marketing is queen.  When a woman is in labor, finally giving birth to what she has created, she has to push the baby out so others can see and get to know that baby just as well as she does.  She has to really give it all she has.

When you’re ready for the world to see your blog and really know you, you have to give it all you’ve got when marketing it.

Join social networking sites, participate in forums, comment on other blogs, and simply reach out to anyone and everyone who might show an interest in what you have.

There is no such thing as marketing too much.  Just be careful using the wrong tools in the wrong way.  It could turn others away.

It’s Never Really Over

Now that your blog has been born, you may think it’s all over.

It’s never over!

You have to keep feeding your blog, keep nurturing it, and keep introducing it to others to help build it’s social life.

The only time you’ll ever be finished taking care of your blog is when you decide to let it die, or you are gone yourself.  Much like taking care of your children.

Dealing With The Dirty Diapers

While taking care of your blog, you’ll find there may be just as much bad as there is good.  But just like raising a child, you have to deal with it.

Don’t give up when you feel like things are going wrong.  Simply step back, take a deep breath, and go at it from another angle.

Your blog will eventually be the target of spammers, hackers, content scrapers, haters, and even friends & family that tell you you’ll never succeed.  This is how you know you’re becoming successful.

Don’t listen to everyone.  There is a reason they aren’t successful bloggers.

“The absolute best thing in life is doing something that everyone said couldn’t be done.”

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