Today is Blog Action Day and as the day approached, I panicked a bit for I haven’t been writing for some time.  But this year’s topic, Climate Change and it’s implications on our lives, is so huge, I did not want to pass up the opportunity to include my two cents even if there might only be a few readers left who check my blog out these days.

We all know that there is an enormous amount of information on the web about climate change and it is kind of difficult to figure out where to start and what to say in a short message for your post that hasn’t already been said.  But you know what?  Despite ALL of the information out there, many of us are still not taking the steps necessary to slow down the process of climate change, let alone stop it.   We may even have some ideas that climate change is detrimental but still a lot of us do not have a clear picture of what all this means.   So if you are like me and need to see the big picture, check out the  Climate time Machine by Nasa which shows Changes in the Global Conditions Over Time in a very easy to understand flash videos.

I also came across a few sites/forums where some people were upset and questioned why US has to be concerned about climatic changes in the rest of the world.  That’s such an ignorant position to take as the green house gases are not separated by borders like  most countries are.  Gases in our atmosphere don’t need regulations or permission to move from one country to another!    It’s the same air we all breath, in our homes, and in our offices.   Air pollution is a universal problem and each and every one of us has an obligation to do whatever we can do to correct it if we care for a better future for us as well as our future generations.

Look at this video that shows how US isn’t immune to the wrath caused by polluting environment:

And you can download the fact sheet that explains the connection between Climate Change and Flooding.

Now it’s really easy to start feeling that at our individual levels, it’s difficult to do anything about it.   In order to make a difference in the rate at which the earth’s atmosphere is polluting, we don’t have to drop our daily routines and do something out of the ordinary.  It’s the simplest of things that will eventually make a huge difference in clearing our atmosphere.    Simple things like using energy star products, energy efficient cars, recycling and planting some trees (remember we learned in grade school that plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?).   If you want to be part of the community while planting trees, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a worldwide tree planting campaign and pledged to plant 7 billion trees by the end of 2009.   They allow people to make online pledges to plant trees.  They have already surpassed their original pledge of 7 billion trees.  Here are the instructions on how to plant a tree!

I think I am going to start planting some fruit trees as that can produce delicious results – for us as well as for the mother earth.

What action(s) are you going to take to reduce the climate change?

photo by nattu

PS: This post is part of Blog Action Day 2009. Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites bloggers all over the world in posting about the same issue on the same day. It’s aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.  It’s not too late to register your blog and be part of “the largest ever social change event on the web.”

Plant A Tree : Blog Action Day ‘09 Climate Change is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

If you keep up with the world news or write a blog,  you must have heard about the massive fires in Australia where  the death toll has risen to more than 300 in just a few days.   It is times like these I feel blogging is a worthwhile activity which tends to unite humanity.

In an effort to help victims of these fires,  SitePoint has decided to give away 5 books for the price of 1 and donate ALL the money to the victims.   Their goal is to raise $50,000 and donate it to Australian RedCross Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

There is a wide selection of books to choose from.  Here is what SitePoint’s website says:

We’re offering our entire range of books — from PHP to Project Management — for the sale; designers, developers, freelancers, managers, and business owners alike will all be able to choose a selection of professional books to enjoy.

If you or someone you know can use these books, then this is a very nice deal as combined these books are worth some $150.. and you only pay less than $30, and the best of all, you feel good making a contribution to help someone in need.     Here are some horrible pictures from an Australian news site.

When I came across SitePoint’s post this morning, I was watching CNN and the bushfire news segment was on and I instantly bought the following 5 books:

The Photoshop Anthology
The Art and Science of CSS
The Principles of Successful Freelancing
Build of your own website the right way
The HTML Utopia

They also have books on flipping websites, and more techie PHP,  JavaScript and AJAX applications for the techie minds.  Perfect opportunity to earn some good karma.

UPDATE: This deal ended on Friday Feb. 13th, 2009.

Buy 5 Books for the Price of 1 at SitePoint – And Earn Some Good Karma is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome of this week’s carnival of healing.  Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up  of personal blog posts on the topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment.

You’ll see many different perspectives in this week’s carnival as Holistic Healing “addresses all parts of the individual, not just the physical aspect of a person where manifested illnesses are most apparent. Holistic healing is not intended to serve as a band-aid or a one time fix. It is an ongoing journey of discovery in search of more answers and ultimately; living better, being healthier, and striving for wholeness.” as described in Phylameana’s blog.

I hope you enjoy visiting and reading the following informational articles in this carnival.

Russ presents Eat Healthier at Work posted at Open Road Open Mind.

Surfer Sam presents NEW !! Vitamins for Good Health posted at Surfer Sam and Friends.

Dr. Davon Jacobson presents Easy Dental Care with Highly Sensitive Teeth posted at *Health and Nutrition Facts*.

Phil for Humanity presents Overcoming Fear posted at Phil for Humanity.

Pregnancy Advisor presents How to Exercise Safely During Your Pregnancy posted at Pregnancy Hut – Week By Week Pregnancy Calendar.

Dean Moyer presents Sciatica and the Saline Story posted at The Back Pain Blog.

praveen presents Make New Year’s Resolutions For One Day Only posted at Tao of Simplicity.

Adam Donkus presents Goals for 2009 posted at Link Building and SEO tips from Pixelhead explaining how he is going to start out the year right by making and monitoring his goals throughout 2009.

Ross presents Are Natural Cleaning Products Worth It? posted at Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog.

Peter Murphy presents How to Stay Motivated In The Face Of Office Politics posted at Get Motivated Stay Motivated.

Life Regained presents Dismissing The Detox Myth posted at Your Life Regained.

Kelly Sonora presents The Health Policy 100: The 100 Best Health Care Policy Blogs – Radiology Technician Schools posted at Radiology Technician Schools.

Aparna presents Home remedies for hardened palms posted at Beauty and Personal Grooming.

Xquisitlife presents Who Am I? posted at The best is yet to come!.

Naren Ghimire presents Meditation: The Ultimate Transformation posted at Spiritual Pub.

MBB presents MonaVie Acai Berry Health Benefit Scam posted at Money Blue Book Blog.

Browse the archives for more articles on healing and empowerment.

Last week this carnival was hosted Carnival of Healing #170 at How I Healed

For the next week’s carnival, visit Well Being and health

PS:  Please note that any articles that I felt were not in conformance with the overall theme of this carnival were not included.  To learn more, please visit holistic healing home page.

Carnival of Healing #171 – Positive Perspectives is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Just a reminder to all my readers that the next carnival of healing will be hosted at this blog on Jan. 10th, 2009 (upcoming Friday).

So, if you have been thinking of participating, and if you have recently written anything on any of the topics related to:

Wellness
Holistic health
Spirituality
Personal Empowerment, or
Healthy Lifestyle

Get Your Blog Post Included in the Carnival by submitting here.

Here is an upcoming schedule of carnival of healing.

• #171 – Jan 10 2009: hosted by Pearl, Fresh Perspectives
• #172 – Jan 17 2009: hosted by Evan Hadkins (theme: Authenticity), wellbeingandhealth.net
• #173 – Jan 24 2009: hosted by Elizabeth Harper, Sealed with Love Blog
• #174 – Jan 31 2009: hosted by Nina Dixon, On the Path
• #175 – Feb 07 2009: hosted by Joe Lasiter, Massage 101
• #176 – Feb 14 2009: hosted by Clara Myers, Mind Mart
• #177 – Feb 21 2009: hosted by Pamir Kiciman, Reiki Help Blog
• #178 – Feb 28 2009: hosted by Margarat Nee, La Vida Fresca
• #179 – Mar 07 2009: hosted by Cari Campbell, Your Joyous Life

Next carnival of healing is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I use Justin Tadlock’s Options theme which was recommended and set up by my lovely friend Mig who writes Online Public Relations and I’ve been loving the ease to use this theme.  So naturally I visit Justin’s site often to see the showcase of how other people have tweaked the theme.  I don’t thing any of us keeps up with the premium themes business but I am sure most you will find this discussion at Justin’s site on Automatic pulling premium WordPress.org theme directory interesting to follow.

Don’t know if Abraham Piper followed Jim Estill’s advice in a Copyblogger article – Shorter is better – but with this post he has proven that it doesn’t always have to be a  How To or a Best 101 List to get huge number of comments ^_^

When I visited Jonathan Fields’s blog via reader, as I loved the title mba-shmemba, I found Seth Godin’s Squidoo lens post Instead of getting an MBA, consider spending six months in my office.  In Seth’s words:

If you’re stuck in a dead end job in publishing, or if you made a not-so-great choice in getting your career started, or if you thought Wall Street would be a different place, or if you just got laid off, or if you’re not crazy about fretting away the next six months waiting to get fired and you’re not quite ready to start your own gig… this might be the turbolift you were hoping for. Yes, it’s free.
It’s a chance to get off that track and onto a new track, faster and cheaper than most of the alternatives. And it might even be fun.

The only caveat is that you have to apply before December 14th – which is tomorrow!  That offer by Seth Godin got me very excited and for few hours I was playing in my mind how nice it would be if I applied and got chosen for his course..  I’m telling you, that kind of opportunity doesn’t come often.  I live close enough to the city and could definitely see myself enjoying this rare opportunity except I can’t leave my dead end job yet. So I’m willing to wait for the digital version.  

The different perspectives on the comment thread are interesting and a 17 year old guy Cyrusmassoumi also put together an ongoing list of links to people’s Squidoo lens ‘resumes’  who have applied for this guided 6 month apprenticeship.

If you are like me, I am sure you are visiting tons of social media sites all day long but have not seen consistent traffic to your site, then you want to read 10 ways to improve your results with Social Media today. 

Oh, have you been checking out Google’s Countdown to 2009 Search Tips to make your holiday search easier? 

If you have anything interesting to share, feel free to send me the link and I’ll try and publish it here in next Interesting Links post.

photo by thethi

Interesting Posts Around the Web is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As many of you have often mentioned I should get back to posting regularly, and have inquired how I spend my time now that I am not blogging regularly, I want to share that I try to stay in touch with the online world doing things that do not require a lot of concentration or time.   I am very much present in the social media scene and often vote your articles up and am always there to help you out in any way I can.   Occasionally, I have also participated in the small group writing projects/contests, especially when the rules to enter were not very difficult.  A lot of things have changed after my father’s passing as now I go to see my mother (after work in the evening) more often than before and that takes away from my time but even when I am at home doing nothing and am not busy, it’s been difficult dealing with all that has happened in the last year but I promise to do better on this blog.

Now this:

Just a few days ago, I received an email from Luciano Passuello of Litemind that he was running a project/contest for his readers to submit their best personal excellence tips.  This did not require a blog post as you would just need to send in a tip to Luciano’s email.

As I am still in need of some good ideas on how to get over my depression, I thought of sending in a few lines that may not be the best advice out there but they have become my mantra to get through my sadness, check out #28 in the list.  Luciano has published ALL personal excellence tips submitted to him, 66 tips so far. Great ideas given by Litemind readers and great blogs to discover.

The best part.

Since there are prizes worth some $800,  Luciano has asked his participants to vote by commenting on this post listing at least their favorite 5 tips/entries,  and as many as they like (no voting for their own entry of course).   This part is going to take some time for me to choose as I am in a position where I could use most of these tips to improve my life.   If you didn’t get a chance to participate,  you are not eligible to vote but I’d still encourage you to head over to Litemind and share your own very best personal excellence tips.

And I’d be delighted to hear your comments here too on what gets you through depression and sadness.

Personal Excellence Tips at Litemind is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As I contemplated on what I was going to write and how I was going to participate in a Blog Action Day 2008 in which thousands of bloggers all over the world are thinking and writing about the same issue that transcends color, creed, race and or country,  I was taken over by a lot of emotions.   I thought about the lady we often see walking in the downtown area asking people for quarters.  Over the years it has become a joke amongst most people who work in that area, whenever someone sees her or comes across, they’d laugh and say there goes the quarter lady!   People laugh at her because she has a one liner ‘got a quarter?’  for everyone.   You can find her eating a subway sandwich every day at the train station.   I’ve never laughed at her but I’d admit (and I am ashamed of this) that I have ignored her many times and turned my face away thinking I can’t give her a quarter every day?

How selfish I was.  With blog action day theme, as I was reading more and more on poverty, I couldn’t believe I had done that to her.   It is so easy to act like I did and ignore this problem but just imagine if we had to beg someone for every meal, day after day!    I know my heart is at the right place but on this day, I pledge to make conscious efforts to make a difference in whatever small ways I can.

We humans are so strange in that when in United States someone talks about poverty,  they mostly refer to it or think about it as a condition that exists only in some remote 3rd world, under-developed section of the society.  So not true.  America has it’s share of poverty as detailed in this website.    Imagine this for a second, according to the GlobalIssues, almost half the world population – that is over three billion people – live on less than $2.50 a day!

If these numbers on the chart above don’t really do anything for you, I am sure the following video certainly will move you.

As for me, I went over the list of 88 ways to take action against poverty now that Easton Ellsworth made on Blog Action Day blog yesterday, from people’s contributions.   I am going to try to do as many of those things as possible – some I already do, like eating vegetarian meals twice – I’ve been a vegetarian for a couple of years (well I do eat fish, but just that, no mammals and/or even chicken), signed up with kiva to make loans, clicked on the hunger site to give free food to the poor.  I can’t say I am ready to go homeless for a day and night yet but that would be quite a lesson.

But I want to get started today, NOW, with this post.  So, I pledge to donate $1.00 to Kiva.org for each comment on this post.

There are tons of websites to get inspiration from and get involved.   I have met a lot of great people via blogs, who are spending a whole lot of time to make a difference.  Head over to Train for Humanity and see how you can get involved while getting healthy yourself.

Think of Poverty on Blog Action Day 2008 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo: sytoha

The Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up of blogs across the Internet featuring information about healing, self empowerment, and spirituality.   This carnival is organized by Phylameana who writes about Healing on About.com.  My thanks go to Phelameana for letting me host this edition on my blog.

As I was reading through the articles submitted for this edition, I couldn’t help remember a quote by Helen Keller

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
– Helen Keller

No matter how big and difficult challenges we face, from illness, grief, losing a job, loss of loved ones, fear of failures in our relationships, or financial matters, no matter how difficult to overcome these challenges might be, we all find ways to get through them and survive but the hurt remains.  The articles that are submitted to this carnival are geared towards emotional, physical and spiritual healing.  They have been helpful to me in my struggle to overcome my challenges and I am sure you will find something to help you as you begin your healing journey.

So here comes:

Sonora presents Top 50 Medical Professor Blogs posted at Nursing School Search Blog.

Daphne presents Joyful Days » Laugh A Lot posted at Joyful Days, saying, “Laughter cures many ills in life. Doctors are starting to admit that patients who decide to think positively and laugh a lot have higher chances of surviving diseases including cancer. There are powerful biological processes that take place when we laugh that we are only just starting to understand.”

Anna Farmery presents Behind the Smile…. posted at Widows Quest, saying, “I try each day to smile, I know that the world lives on and that they have troubles of their own. So I try and listen to people, I try and be there for them, often to the detriment of myself…

SeanBissell presents Even Dogs Get De-Motivated posted at Yummy Fitness | Fitness For Fun People saying, “It’s very easy to get de-motivated if you get off track for too long, and one of the best ways to get back into your routine is just to make it fun for yourself in any way that you can.

Alvaro Fernandez presents ABC Reporter Bob Woodruff’s Spectacular Recovery From Traumatic Brain Injury posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “You have may have seen a few weeks ago the interview between former US presidential contender John Edwards and reporter Bob Woodruff. All the resulting media coverage centered on Edwards’ declarations. However, there is something much more remarkable that surfaced at that interview: Bob Woodruff’s spectacular recovery.”

Donald Latumahina presents A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose posted at Life Optimizer.

Joshua Seth presents Fast Weight Loss Tips | posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying, “Everyone seems to want to lose weight fast. I’d rather show you how to lose weight permanently. Not all fast weight loss methods are healthy and most of them don’t work long term. Still, a few methods do make the cut. So here is how to lose weight fast…”

AndrewB presents How to Overcome Overeating posted at test, saying, “Do you engage in overeating? Overeating is eating too much. We all do it to some degree, however it can lead to developing an eating disorder.”

mag presents Breathe your way to better health! posted at The Magenpie.com, saying, “Breathe better”

Grace Young presents No slouching! posted at Grace R Young OT.

Sam presents NEW !! Relief for Stress, Anxiety and Tension. Symptoms and Relief. Cope and Manage Stress posted at Surfer Sam and Friends, saying, “Relief for Stress, Anxiety and Tension Symptoms and Relief to Cope and Manage Stress Stress is the plague of the twenty-first century. Pressures at work and demands at home leave us feeling tension, anxiety and stress.
Akemi Gaines presents Heroes Of Healing: Gary Craig posted at Yes to Me.

Astrid Lee presents Pope’s Mass in Paris Brings Focus on Practical Spiritually posted at World Healing, saying, “Yesterday morning, together with a quarter million French people, I managed to participate in the public mass held in Paris by pope Benedict XVI. It was an unusually calming and healing experience…. (pictures)”

Marcus Ryan presents Top 3 Anti Aging Diets posted at Wrinkle Creams Review, saying, “If you want the top 3 anti aging diets for healthy skin, then have a look at this blog entry by Marcus Ryan where the anti aging diets full of superfoods for skin are featured.”

Ginsburg presents Supplement Boosts Immune Function & Helps Diabetic Blood Sugar posted at Live Immune, saying, “well-researched dietary supplement to boost NK fraction”

Brain Blogger presents HIPAA Doesn’t Exist For Doctors posted at Brain Blogger, saying, “Recently a very popular colleague of mine was hospitalized. His frequent visitors coming into the room began to hamper his recovery and his family was forced to try and enforce privacy rules and HIPAA.”

NickIrons presents Exercise — The Fountain of Youth! posted at Get Results! Fitness Blog, saying, “Exercise is the only proven way to drastically combat aging and to regain your youthful body. In fact, most people are able to regain up to 1/3 of their muscle strength and mass after participating in an exercise program for just a couple of months.”

Ginsburg presents Kabbalistic Speech & New Year posted at Live Immune.

photo:eye of einstein

Chris Edgar presents What’s Really Holding You Back: “Morality” Or Anxiety? posted at Purpose Power Coaching, saying, “When we feel anger, fear, or some other emotion we see as unpleasant, we tend to assume “morality” requires us to feel how we do. If someone else is the object of our irritation, anxiety, or something else, we tend to see them as immoral. In this article, I discuss how becoming aware of how we confuse our emotions with morality can help us transcend our fears and gain valuable self-understanding.”

Aanga presents How to Have a Healthy Autumn posted at Ananga Sivyer’s Living by Design Blog.

Bob Crawford presents Aligning with Success posted at Growing Your SELF Blog – Bob Crawford Online, saying, “Learning to become aligned with your inner self is crucial to manifesting your goals and dreams.”

Sagar Satapathy presents Top 100 Health and Wellness Sites for Seniors posted at RN Central.

Pastor WD Favour presents Supernatural Healing posted at WDFavour.com, saying, “A true life story of a miraculous and life transforming healing.”

Alex Blackwell presents 10 things you wish you had never learned

Evelyn created a movie: My Abundance Mind Movie [don’t forget to vote for her wonderful movie at YouTube)

And last but not the least, our very own Phylameana wrote about “Follow Your Heart”

That concludes this edition.

Past Edition: Sept. 13, 2008 Grace in Gravity

Next Edition: Sept. 27, 2008 Natural Pain Relief

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Carnival of Healing #156 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This is a short announcement to let you all know that on September 20th, 2008, I will be hosting the #156th edition of Carnival of Healing.

From the carnival home page:  Carnival of Healing is a weekly roundup of posts on topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment or healthy lifestyle.

I encourage ALL my readers who write about any of the above topics, to participate in this carnival and submit your most recent posts.  Once you have written the post that you want to submit, click on the image or go here and click on the orange box in the upper right corner to get to the submission form.

Please make sure your articles are related to the topics that are acceptable to this carnival.  Any posts that are not related will not be accepted.  If you would like to host this carnival, check out Carnival of Healing Home Page

Carnival of Healing Coming to this blog is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

One of my good friends Chee Wee Ng from Betshopboy completes a great milestone of blogging for one full year tomorrow and is celebrating first blog anniversary this month.  He has lined up some great gifts to give away to his readers.

I realize I should have announced it on my blog a bit earlier as he had weekly drawings and even early bird draw where if you entered early and secured 20 points, your points would be doubled but still there is one grand prize draw that will be on August 31.. The prizes for this coming week and the rules are listed below but first, check out Chee Wee’s video about his contest..

Prizes for 24 August draw

1st prize – 4GB Sandisk Micro Cruzer skin flash drive
2nd & 3rd – a 125×125 ad book for 7 days (from 25 – 31 Aug) with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Prizes for Grand draw on 31 August (one winner)

A 2GB Creative Zen MP3 player with 2.5? TFT LCD for videos & audios & SD card expansion slot. Click for specification.

A 125×125 ad book for entire month of September 2008 with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Early Bird Bonus
The first 25 submissions with minimum of 20 points each will have their total points doubled!

So here is the deal, if you want to win one of the prizes, then here is what you need to do to gain those points:

* Registration and 1 point –> Subscribe to our RSS Feed via email (mandatory) and comment below that you are registered to win. You can use the subscribe option in the sidebar or at the end of this post.

* 1 point: Stumble or Stumble Review this contest

* 2 points –> Follow me on Twitter and Twitt about this contest with link to this contest page.

* 5 points –> Make a *New* blog post on a publicly accessible blog (cannot be on a password protected page such as myspace or facebook) and link to this page and the homepage. Additional 5 points given if you embed the above video(found in this post) in your post.

Earn Bonus Points
15 points –> Make a *New* blog post (separate from above post) and embed anyone of my videos found in below posts with a short writeup and link to the respective posts. That’s 15 points for each new post with a video.

Video post #1: Singapore Toys & Comic Convention 2008

Video post #2: A Prelude To F1 Grand Prix

Rules:

* This contest is all in good fun and is open to anywhere that snail mail goes.

* Participating blogs must be 90 days old and consist of at least 10 posts.

* Comment must contain link to twitter posts and blog posts, Twitter id and StumbleUpon id, so they can be verified.

* Winner must have an active subscription to Betshopboy.net when selected.

* Winners of ad spot must supply your own 125×125 image, which will run during the period stated above.

* Winners will be selected by random draw and will be contacted by email and you have 7 days to response. If there’s no response, a new winner will be drawn

* Contest ends on August 30th at 11.59pm (GMT +8).

* The organizer (that’s me!) reserve the right to reject any entries from websites that are generally offensive or pornographic, and any websites that can be classified as spam.

* The organizer (me again) reserves the right, at my sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this contest, e.g., depending on the participation rate, additional prizes and/or early bird bonus may be thrown in if my subscription target is hit.

Submit your entries early to qualify for the weekly draws and to double your points for the first 25 submissions with minimum 20 points!

Congratulations Chee Wee

First Anniversary Giveaway Contest – Betshopboy is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Last year, I had joined thousands of bloggers all over the world during Blog Action Day 2007, and the topic of conversation was Environment. 

This year, on Blog Action Day (October 15, 2008), once again bloggers across the globe will unite in bringing awareness to the masses and the topic will be Poverty.  

Many people ask what can one person do about Poverty?  Or how can blogging about poverty make a difference?   There is power in numbers and unity.  When thousands write about the same issue, in a sort of a brain storming way,  giving ideas to each other about ways to end it, educating those who have no idea about it, bringing awareness, inspiring each other to take actions, and changing minds on a global scale, our society can be better.

Also, there is a very compelling video posted on Blog Action Day site just to answer some of such concerns!

And you can also read up a bit on what poverty actually means.  This link explains very that poverty does not hit just the third world countries, or the developing countries,  it spans many families and individuals even in the most developed and so called ‘rich’ countries. 

On this day, some people will write about how they feel about poverty, others will write about what they think should or could be done to eradicate this affliction, and still others will talk about what causes it and it history or whatever else they want to bring forth about the issue. 

As you can tell, I will be joining again this year by writing something on that day and would love to hear if you are planning to join the Blog Action Day this year. 

You can find more websites and resources on ways you can help and also check out topic ideas they have compiled to help promoting the day.

If you want to find more posts on Blog Action Day, keep watching this link : Blog Action Day Posts 2008

Blog Action Day 2008 will be about Poverty is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

For a happy Monday reading, here are some of the wonderful posts I came across this week and am sure you’ll find them interesting too.

8 Attributes of an Olympic Mindset @ Freelance Writing

21 Digg.com Funny Resume Stories @ JobMob

Hit the Digg Front Page with Social Elves @ JohnTP

9 Keys to Running Multiple Blogs @ Traffikd

How Trust Made My Blog Triumph: 1000 Subscribers @ SEO 2.0

Categories, Bookmarks and Tags: Background and Basics @ aimClear Search Marketing Blog

The Curse of a Blogger @ More Than Scratch the Surface

Five Search Queries to find Sponsorship Link Opportunities @ GrayWolf’s SEO blog

4 Search Engines to Search Wikipedia the Pro Way @ MakeUseOf

Sleeping with the enemy @ Brian Gardner

and finally, an awesome link that made my day when Jim Kukral sang the Happy Birthday song for my mom.  ;)

photo by: Stephane

Interesting Posts Around the Web – Aug. 10 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

YES… finally Stumble Upon has listened to so many of us complain about this and are planning to allow us to add unlimited number of friends.  If you remember, back in November last year (can’t believe it’s been that long) I blogged about not being able to add my Stumble Upon friends.

With just 200 friend limit, you had to constantly ‘clean up’ your ‘friends’ to make sure you get relevant stumbles delivered to you.  This limited you from getting those people’s stumbles who added you as friends but you couldn’t reciprocate.   Not any more.  I will be able to see most of my fans’s stumbles now since I can befriend them.

According to Stumble Upon’s blog:

Over the next couple weeks we are going to separate the social & content aspects of friendship on SU, so you can subscribe to someone’s favorites without necessarily becoming their friend, and become someone’s friend without necessarily seeing their stumbles. You’ll also be able to “Subscribe” to more than 200 stumblers, since we’ve changed the way they are stored in the database. Mutuals will just be “Friends”, fans will become “Subscribers” and you’ll simply be “Subscribed to” stumblers who rate great content. We hope these changes will make things a bit easier to understand for new stumblers, while improving stumble quality for everyone.

The upcoming changes are definitely going to make an already wonderful social media site more useful and enjoyable.  I can’t wait to see the changes as the Stumble Upon team fixes some of the other bugs as noted in their post, like removing “ghosts” from the system.  Changes like “Mutuals” gaining a status of friends and “fans” becoming your subscribers.  The option to “opt-out” of stumbles of certain friends whose interests do not match yours, is going to make it even better.   I can’t wait to see the changes.

So, have you subscribed to my stumbles?  If not, check them out, I’m sure you’ll find something interesting there.   Also, if you read this blog, leave your Stumble Upon URL and I’d love to add you to my network and subscribe to your stumbles.

photo: Owlets

StumbleUpon lifts 200 friend limit is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I was surprised the other day to learn that my brother, who is a veterinarian by profession and oversees his own web site, had no clue about what RSS was.

So, how do you explain to someone why they should ’subscribe to your feed’ when they have no idea what you are talking about?  This is what I told him and fortunately, he got it the first time.

Oh, the RSS… well, lets see: 

Its a way to read new content of any website on a single page, so you don’t have to remember each website’s address!

There are many companies who let you do that… Google does it through their application called Google Reader.

Its fairly simple to have a Google account and then click on Reader option and start adding sites that you want to see the newest content from.  Also see here: A Quick Tour of Google Reader

I personally prefer Bloglines – another company that also lets you read your favorite sites on a single page – after signing up with them of course… you can see the sites I’ve added on my Bloglines here

I then showed him how to set up the his Google Reader since he already had a Google account.

Its easier to understand what RSS is once you sign up with either of the two i mentioned here and see it in action…

Go ahead, click on any one of these orange icons and you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose one of your favorite readers to subscribe to my feed and you’ll be able to read the latest content of this site as I publish it.

While you are here, I urge you to take a look at the Most Commented posts from menu below the header image OR click on any of the posts displaying in the gallery and see if you like the conversations that follow on this blog.

Don’t forget to check out the Archives for some interesting posts either.  Here are some of my favorites:

Who is reading your blog?

Communicating with people you haven’t met

Links, Backlinks, Pingbacks and Trackbacks – What Exactly Are They?

Creating Content From Everyday Life

Don’t let it bring you down!

I cannot add my Stumble Upon Fans as friends

Dilemma of Paid Reviews!

My Best Blogging Achievement

Coordination, Cooperation and Collaboration – Lead to Success

Delete or Edit Comment?

Any questions? still not convinced?  don’t hesitate to come back and ask in the comments.

Read the latest content of my blog at your convenience is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This is a guest post by Jacob Share of JobMob

Are you one of those people who say they never learned anything in high school? Me neither. I learned a lot in high school, but there were some critical topics that never appeared on the blackboard.

1) Parenting

Carrying an egg around for a week isn't parenting. The sad thing is just doing that class assignment would have already put you "in the know" compared to most other high school graduates.

Looking at how you were raised by your parents will rarely prepare you for the real thing, which is why so many people agonize before having kids and then get stressed out when they do. Or worse, they become bad parents.

2) Financial Literacy

Can you read a company's financial statement? Could you read one when you finished school?

Let's try another example- do you know what the difference is between an asset and a liability?

Most people aspire to buying their own house for when they decide to settle down. Seems like a good asset to have, right? Think again. As long as you're paying off the mortgage on that house, it's a liability, a debt to pay off, not something bringing you any immediate returns. And because you're covering a mortgage, you're actually paying much more than the house cost the bank to buy it for you in the first place.

3) Job Hunting

People should love job hunting. It's a chance to do something better, to raise your standard of living, to move up in the world and improve life not just for you, but your dependents as well.

So then why does everyone hate looking work? Because they were never taught how to do it. As a result, they lack self-confidence and steel themselves for potentially months of the resume-interview-rejection cycle and should hardly be surprised when they meet those low expectations.

What you can do

If the educational system won't educate you, you need to educate yourself:

1. Read – there are many terrific blogs, self-help books and guides that can teach you but do yourself a favor and start reading BEFORE you need to make life-changing decisions on these topics.

2. Learn – consider enrolling in an online course, local seminar or workshops with experts who have a proven track record for what they teach.
3. Network – join support groups, discussion forums and social media sites whose members have similar experience or better. Try to find a mentor you can follow to success.

What do you think?

How were you able to overcome this missing chunk of your education?

About the author

Jacob Share created JobMob to bring together job seekers and jobfinders to find jobs in Israel and all over the world. The blog is filled with straight-talking advice based on real world experience and lots of humor thrown in, so you should subscribe now to JobMob via RSS or email if you're looking for a better job or just want to laugh about it with articles like the 150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders Ever.

photo by A Y A n

Additional Reading:  Know more about the guy in the picture above dabbawalas

3 Crucial Things That School Never Taught You is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I’m happy to say that Awards, Accolades has become a series in itself..  Check out Awards I and Awards II to see what I mean. 

I can’t begin to thank all the wonderful people I have met ever since I started blogging.  These fellow bloggers who have become good friends make my life better each and every day.   So, once again, I thank these shining stars, who have become part of my life, from the bottom of my heart.

You have heard me talk about the most generous soul,  Mig, who not only comes up with the original posts (like 10 reasons why she loves pearl), but also continues to bestow me with numerous beautiful awards and accolades. 

And what can I say?   Sue from Sueblimely and Kuanyin from Blog Pond and Colin from Free PC Security made me blush by calling me their Blogging Mentor, the award created by Sue.

How can I thank these beautiful people making my world ever so exciting?  Kim the beautiful artist from Laketrees designed another award this year called Significant Blogger Award and it was an honor to receive it from her.

Kim has also spent considerable time coming up with Top 101 Artists’ Blogs which is worth checking out. 

Colin also awarded Best Friends award which is very nice of him.  Colin maintains numerous blogs with a lot of useful information and is always ready to help out anyone in need.  I am proud that he is my friend.   thanks buddy.. (Did I pick up all the awards from you Colin?  I know you’ve been showering me with a lot of them lately lol)

When you get mentioned and recognized by others,  it makes blogging experience even more exciting and makes you want to continue, despite all the struggles that come with blogging.  I started reading Steven Snell’s blog, Vandelay Design, a few months ago and really loved it.   I was surprised when Steven asked to feature me on his new blog, Traffikd, a blog about Social Media and Internet Marketing. Check out this blog for all you want to know about Social Media or Internet Marketing.

Steven was also very kind in including me for his list of 8 Bloggers That Won’t Bite, on PureBlogging.  

What more could I ask?  I am blessed meeting so many supportive and kind friends and I wish the best for all of you. 

Awards, Accolades III is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

In the past couple of weeks, I missed my 'most interesting posts around the web' feature although I came across many interesting posts that I wanted to share with you. I hope to continue with it soon but today I want to share with you some very interesting and useful blogs that some of my dear friends have started.

These are experienced bloggers who have accumulated wealth of knowledge in one or more areas of blogging and are nice enough to share their expertise with us. I recommend checking these out, because I am sure you are going to love these blogs.

Steven Snell of Vandelay Design, who, in addition to maintaining a superb blog, also writes regularly at Blogtrepreneur, Daily Blog Tips, Daily Bits and Pure Blogging, has started a blog called traffikd. This blog is all about Internet Marketing and social media. Steven already has a huge list of over 400 categorized Social Media and Social Networking Sites that you definitely want to check out.

My talented friend Simonne from All tips and tricks and the very hard working Diana of 134u.com, started a joint venture called EZ Money On Net, where Simonne and Diana talk about their experiences on what really worked for them in their quest to make money and what didn't. Check out their informative posts like What are conversions and how can you get some – Affiliate Marketing Guide that are going to be useful for not only the beginner bloggers, but also for the ones who have been in the game for sometime.

Jay Shaffstall from Online Opportunity is going to launch a forum called Advisory Panel on Friday, the 8th. It's a membership site designed to create a cooperative community of Internet Marketers. You can join this forum and get tons of free and discounted stuff, like web hosting and other fine products.

Jacob Share of Job Mob has started another original idea blog called Group Writing Projects (an idea, that I kept thinking about but never could act on it ;)). The blog had been launched and then I think it had some issues to be ironed out, but the blog is something you want to keep an eye on because as the name suggests, is going to display all the current group writing projects that I am very fond of.

As if these are not enough, our very own contest blogger, Phil, who already runs Contest Blogger and Romance Tracker sent me an email about his new blog launch Advertising Blogger, that launched in January. This from their About page:

The blogosphere is growing rapidly, and thousands of bloggers are beginning to discover how to make money by selling advertising on their sites. The concept behind Advertising Blogger is simple: we post free reviews about blogs that are selling advertising.

You got that right, dude: our reviews are absolutely free. Whether your blog gets ten thousand visits a day or ten visits a day, if you are selling advertising then we’re interested in telling our readers about you.

So, there. We can learn all about Making Money Online from Simonne, Diana and Steven's blogs, participate in Group Writing Projects from Jacob's blog and bring tons of traffic with Steven's social media blog and even advertise on Phil's advertising blog to make even more money. And if you still have any unaswered questions, don't forget to sign up at Jay's Advisory Panel to get free answers and advice. These blogs should make just about anyone learn all there is to blogging and be successful.

While blogging is very important hobby, lets not forget about saving our environment. Some bloggers are blogging to teach us just how to save the oceans and our environment. Pelf from Chenpn has just completed a 31 days project on Save the Ocean at her The Giving Hands blog. I wrote an article on the importance of supporting our wetlands.

Hope you all check out these excellent blogs and subscribe to their feeds.

New Blogs, New Opportunities is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I won a free ad place

A few days ago I participated in a blogging tips game called ‘use a letter, share a tip‘ at Worknplay where Ritu asked readers to provide a tip from A to Z. At the time I didn’t even know that Ritu had offered perks to participate as I didn’t read all of the instructions, one of which was 125 x 125 banner ad space toa randomly picked winner. Well, to my pleasant surprise, I won the ad space and the banner is on display at Ritu’s blog. The banner was developed by Mayank Gupta of ReviewSaurus. You might remember Mayank from his guest post here Should we drop the Paid Text Links or not.

Here is the banner that Mayank put together. What dyu say?

CLIQ to discontinue

I received an email from CLIQ today that they will be discontinuing their service as of Jan 31st. CLIQ was originally created by Offermatica, Inc. as a way to research and explore the role of content merchandising in Social Media. As of last month, Offermatica has been acquired by Omniture .

I am really sorry to see the beautiful widget go, especially because of this widget, it was so easy to visit the superb blogs of Tad of SEO 2.0, Fred Peters of Newest on the Net, Lid of BlogWell, and Dicky of TechSnack.

I hope we can keep up with each other’s blogs even after they take away the widget, because I will miss them for sure. In the past months, seeing them on my sidebar here felt they were a part of this blog.

Talk about attachment.

And Now, heres something for you.

Since I will miss CLIQ widget and those lovely faces in my sidebar, I thought of filling up the void, umm empty space with your banner. So, here’s the deal.

If you can tell me in the comments where the heading of this post came from, I’ll enter your name in the draw for a free 125 x 125 ad banner placement for the entire month of February.

Keeping You Posted is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for days now! and I recommend you follow the links in this post right away and make a post on your blog! why? lets see… theres a very good reason and I’m sure you’ll like it!

Diane over at 134u has a very interesting blog on which she writes about blogging, making money, health, SEO, reviews as well as contests! The blog is named 134u (thirteen for you) for a reason, it was started on the 13th, it completed two months obviously on November 13th, and Diane has a lot of #13 lists which are worth reading and she is also holding a contest that ends on Dec. 13th.

In this contest, you can win $100 just by following some simple rules:

Write a post about this contest in at least 100 words and include 2 links: one to this page and one to my homepage (the link to my homepage will have the anchor “personal blog”) – you will get one entry in this contest;

Subscribe to her RSS feed through a reader – you will get one entry in this contest;

Subscribe to her feed by email – you will get two entries in this contest;

If you do point 1 and 2 you will get 2 entries in this contest; if you do point 1 and 3 you will get 3 entries in this contest. The more entries you have, the greater your chances of winning. You can also do one thing and you’ll get the entries mentioned for each of them.

On 14 December Diane will announce the winner and will write a post with link love for all the participants. So, besides the grand prize, all the participants will be rewarded with a link love.

The $100 prize will be paid via PayPal.

Now thats easy $100 for the holidays…. Good luck if you enter the contest!

Thirteen for you giving away $100! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo by: face-to-face

A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.
~Anais Nin

This is exactly how I feel today! Joy, accompanying me as I walk!
You’ll see what I mean if you head on over to see some Notes of Friendship!

With love to all my readers….

I am, this blog is, All because of you!

Note: Check out the What to Look for In List Posts for an update!

I am, all because of you! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Photo by: Monseteca

“All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving
may be yours and not your inheritors.”

Kahlil Gibran

We just got done being thankful for all that we have, ate good delicious meals and celebrated! But when was the last time we thought about giving away some of what we have? Giving, without expecting something in return?

I used to volunteer at breast cancer walks, heart walks and autism walks but haven’t done that in some time now. Life gets in the way and it is easy to forget to do those things that we don’t depend upon for our daily living.

If you need some inspiration to do something of that nature, head over to Zen Habits and read what Leo Babauta has to say. Leo has a way of moving and inspiring you with his down to earth, straight forward, heart felt writings. Many times, I go over to his blog to simply spend a few minutes browsing through different subjects he writes on and pick the one that resonates with my mood that very moment and come away with a sense of rejuvenation and fulfillment.

Today he has a post on his faith in humanity and how he believes each of us can do our own share “to bring out the best in people, to have them help each other” and bring back the warmth and sense of togetherness in this otherwise seemingly falling apart world. Leo has already started the process of paying his random act of kindness forward by offering free copies of his latest Zen to Done eBook. Another part of his act of kindness is that he will link to any site that writes about their own act of kindness in the real world and how they plan to pay it forward.

I thank Leo for the inspiration and providing me with that much needed push to ask myself today ‘what do I have that I can give to people?“.

As I ask myself this question, a lot of possibilities come to mind like volunteering at a local charity, going to the senior center and just spending time with one of them and bringing smiles to their faces. But many people shy away from volunteering because it takes time, and many times a lot of us start having doubts as to where the money is going, and how it is being spent. Well, there are numerous ways to help others and bring a little joy.

Here is a beautiful inspirational site where you can find how others are spreading joy and bringing smiles in someone else’s life. I loved reading some of the ideas here!

HelpOthers

The site lists some kindness ideas to think about:

Service: donate to a cause, as a holiday gift for your best friend.
Affection: be generous with hugs, kisses and pats on the back.
Laughter: clip cartoons, share funny stories.
Written note: send a ‘thank you’ note, write a letter to an old friend.
Compliment: a simple ‘you look great today’, a sincere ‘thank you for a wonderful meal’.
Listening: no interrupting, no daydreaming, no responding, just listening.
Solitude: spend some time in silence, help others spend some time in silence.

And as I spent some time thinking about other people’s acts of kindness towards me, I can’t forget how helpful and full of compassion some of the hospital nurses were when my mother had triple bypass surgery. There were times when the whole family would be down with overwhelming feelings helplessness and the nursing staff’s caring and compassion would keep our hopes alive. So, I have decided to go to the local hospital this weekend and bring flowers to some of the patients as well as the nursing staff, anonymously.

And I hope I can make it a regular zen habit!

How about you? Do you feel you have something that you can share with others and make them feel happier? How do you plan on paying kind acts forward?

Random Act of Kindness is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Coming up with “Interesting” or “Best Of” lists seem to have become a trend these days!  I’ve been saving these lists from the blogosphere in my delicious account and elsewhere but thought I’d share them with you all in case you haven’t seen them yet!

So, here is a Master List of the best ‘101′ lists out there!

This is an ongoing list and I plan to add to it as I find more! If you know of some good 101 list and would like me to add to it, please let me know in the comments! or via the Contact Form Enjoy!

1. 101 Self Improvement Resources @ Pick the Brain
2. 101 posting ideas that will make your blog sizzle @ I Help You Blog
3. 101 Commonsense Management Tips @ business Intelligence Lowdown
4. 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website @ SEOBook
5. 101 Amazing Earth Facts @ Space
6. 101 Real Estate Blog Topics @ Real Estate Tomato
7. 101 Uses For PLR Articles @ memwg
8. 101 Blog Posting Ideas @ SEO 2.0 Onreact
9. 101 Best Web Freebies You Probably Don’t Know @ JennyHow
10. 101 Essential Freelancing Resources @ FreeLanceSwitch
11. 101 Free Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic @ CanIMakeBigMoneyOnline
12. 101 Essential Blogging Resources @ Blogtrepreneur
13. 101 Suggestions for Squeezing More Fun Out of Life @ Pauls tips
14. 101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog @ Vandelay Design
15. 101 Reasons to FreeLance @ hrworld
16. 101 Ways to make Your Blog More Popular and Successful @ SEO 2.0 Onreact
17. 101 Tools to Convert Video, Music, Images, PDF and More @ Cogniview
18. 101 Ways to Make Money off Open Source @ Manageability
19. 101 Simple Vegan Meals @ The Urban Vegan
20. 101 Resources for Self Published Writers @Self Publishing Blog
21. 101 Blog Tips I Learned in 2006 @ DailyBlogTips
22. 101 Ways to Save Money @ CreditCave
23. 101 Dumbest Moments ( biggest boors, boffoons and blunders of 2007) @CNN-Money
24. 101 Cities for Drinking @ Citytoplist – they have various lists of US cities with some fun things to check out!
25. 101 CSS Tips and Tutorials and Examples @ lxpages
26. 101 CSS Resources to add to your toolbelt of awesomeness @ jasonbartholme
27. 101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that IE cannot @ xulplanet
28. 101 Tips to Improve Your Web Presence @ SearchEngineOptimization
29. 101 Blogging Building Tips @ DeWittsMedia
30. 100 Blog Topics I Hope You Write @ ChrisBrogan
31. 101 Ubuntu Tips Tricks and Tutorials @ lxpages
32. 101 Ways to Run Out of Things To Blog About @ ProBlogger
33. 101 FeedFlares for a Better Tomorrow @ FeedBurner
34. 101 Zen Stories @101ZenStories
35. 101 Easy Ways to Use Google Website Optimizer @ ConversionRateExperts
36. 101 Ways to Put 101 dollars in your pocket this month @ Blogging Away Debt
37. 101 Steps to becoming a better blogger @ Lifehack
38. 101 Tips For Improving Children’s Behavior @ ParentingIdeas
39. 101 Ways to Organize Your Life @ Project Management Source
40. 101 resources to help you build a better web form @ Jasonbartholme
41. 101 Web Marketing Ideas and TIps @ SEO Pedia
42. 101 New Uses for Everyday Things @ Real Simple
43. 101 Essential Blogging Skills @ Skelliewag
44. 101 Tips I learned from Blogging @ Etienneteo
45. 101 Resources on the Web for Bloggers and Writers @ JenWriter
46. 101 Top WordPress Plugins @ One Man’s Goal

As if these weren’t enough lists to read!

47. here is a very comprehensive list of 1001 Lists to Read Before Your Die @Terabell

48. Check out List of Bests for other people’s best lists where I think you can add your own list to the huge resource!

49. Finally, If YOU would like to create your own 101 list, there is a meme going around the blogoshpere about doing 101 things in 1001 days! It is hosted at triplux; The site has other people’s 101 things-to-do-lists where you can get plenty of inspiration!

Note: This post is part of the Group Writing Project at Litemind

del.icio.us Tags: 101Lists, Interesting Lists

Technorati Tags: 101Lists, Interesting Lists

Best 101 Lists is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I am amazed at the level of encouragement I get from all of you guys. And it is humbling to receive tremendous support from you all via emails, MyBlogLog messages, SU messages and IMs! Some of you have gone beyond my wildest imagination in bestowing upon me your love and support and for that I am grateful! So, without further ado, here is a list of awards I’ve received in the past few weeks… (I’m sure I forgot some and technorati reactions aren’t always accurate so if you remember giving me an award, please email me or let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post).

I was completely surprised by Bes’s mention from Reader Appreciation Project that I was one of the recipients of Readers First award! Although, honestly, I do not even remember when I wrote to him.. but then thats the beauty of interacting with your readers… you never know who is reading your blog! My heartfelt thanks to RAProject authors: Simonne, Ronald and of course Bes!

Kim is a great Award winning artist herself and runs Poeartica, a blog full of beautiful paintings and Laketrees where she creates quite a buzz with all of her contests where people have chances to win her esteemed paintings and portraits! I thank Kim for awarding me with Southern Cross Award

Other recipients included:

Lisa Mikey Jan Morriconei Hidyn Gems Kitty Deborah MaryAnn Anna Boyd Renny Pearl Colin Ev Santa Diane Sue Blog Elf Lynda Mihaela Captain Life cruiser Fruity Franco Nihal

Oh here is another award called

Blogging Star Award from KIM @ Laketrees

Other recipients included:

Bluepanjeet Renny and
Diane purplefrog

Thank you Kim!

Sir Colin from The free PC Security also awarded me the Community Blogger Award as well as Shibumi!
“The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one. It also underlines the importance of a blogs readership community, one of the most rewarding parts about blogging. It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.”

Shibumi – “Subtle and unobtrusive beauty” award for blogging elegance!

“Shibumi is a Japanese term which used in the following context is a noun. Its meaning refers to a ‘particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty” which can be applied to almost anything.”

The “shibumi” award was originally created by Hawk who maintains a nice blog!

Thank you so much Colin!

Nice Matters Award from totally useless! Its been long, but I promised I wouldn’t forget you!

With so many awards going back and forth, and more and more people getting involved in this, Colin ended up creating his own thank you award for his buddies called Best Blogging Buddies and presented it to all of the following!

Lisa , Kim, Deborah, Pearl, Sandy, Jesse, Chris, Santa, Blog Elf, Jackie, Marzie, Adrian, Jos, NAFA SG, Polli, Sue, Kathy Maartje, Morgan, Greg, MaryAnn, Eric, Hawk, Carol, Diane, Ev Nucci, Surjit, Kuanyin, Christy Z, Sandee, Robin, Hanna, Maunie, Kim, Bobby, Billy, David, Jennifer, Aryst, Winston, Christy, LilyRuth, Jess, Rudy, Lili, Sandy G, Ange, BlackWyrm, Vincent, Colin & Anne, Blandly Urbane, Marco, Mihaela Lica, Aziz-sm, Lansy, Alex Badalic, Victors, Nostalgia Manila, Franco Yong, Herby, Rubie, Santaram & BVK, Jean-david, Namgay, Catherine, Yunita P, PJ Lighthouse, Lorimer Black, Dream Catcher,Fred Plimley, Anja Merret, Maria Lourdes, Jon B, Denise, Dharmendra P, Brent D, Jerry & Daryl McCoy, Brian B, Calvin Innes, Pieter Marburn, Jessica Field, Taflas, Alex Sysoef, Norie, Justin Stanley, Ashish, David Ledoux, Thanate Tan, Kevin, Etienne, Gerbera, Christina, Abhishek d, Uprai, Texas_Jam, Azmiel, Daniel, Kristin B, Luwis, Adavait, Now Sourcing, Buen Amigo, Kiran Pande, Peterson Wong, Lynn, Chessnoid, Luis Hipolito, Joliveira, Jennifer & Pete, Team Dog, Megan, Mark, Raivyn, Mel, Andrea, Jen / domestika, Mimi, Bobo, Lynda Lehmann, Dread Bob, Julie, RennyBA, Bobbarama, Becky, Magdalena,

Phew! That was some list of links ;) thank you Sir Colin!

If these awards were not enough! Santa considered me worthy of a Santa Certified Award

Needless to say I am feeling ecstatic!  This post was long overdue and I’m glad I finally got to it!   The awards came at such a fast pace, I couldn’t bring myself to blog about them :-)

You should know that I am immensely touched by your support and wish you all a very very Happy Thanksgiving and much joy! 

I would also like to take a second to thank ALL of my readers and commentors.  Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to continue!  So, thank you so very much!

I am also thankful to all of my readers who I haven’t ‘met‘ on their blog or here! If you haven’t commented yet, come out from behind the screen and say a hello sometime.

For previous posts on awards check Awards and Accolades I

And stay tuned for a couple of nice posts that I have been working on! I am sure they’ll make you think and you’ll like them.

Tags: Awards, Blogging Community

Awards, Accolades II is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Following are some of the people who have befriended me on Stumble Upon but I cannot add them because I have reached my friend quota of 200 Max!

I’d like to return the favor even though there are a lot of articles written about befriending only those stumblers you share common interests with! I somehow do not feel comfortable with that philosophy, and I’ll explain below why!

There are a couple of reasons why I would like to befriend ALL of the people who added me as their friend

1) The idea behind Stumble Upon is to find new and interesting websites and with over 3 million members now using SU, everyone is bound to have some interesting stumbles collected and for me to dismiss someone just because their stumbles are not about blogging does not make sense to me!

2) I have added a lot of people as my friends but not all have reciprocated it by adding me as their friend and however small an issue this is, it bothers me. So, I can understand how someone might feel if I do not reciprocate. Its like subscribing to someone’s RSS feed or adding someone as your favorite on Technorati or Bloglines. Isn’t that the idea behind technorati exchanges and and Bloglines trains? So, what is so different on SU?

But more importantly

3) Stumble Upon is much more enjoyable than any of the social networking sites I have participated in so far. Seriously, I have had the chance to talk with or had some interaction with so many established and well known bloggers, non bloggers as well as top stumblers, that have nothing to do with what I blog about and who I would never have met otherwise, that it would be foolish to now want to limit my ‘friendships’ in some narrow niche!

You can benefit the most from any networking site only when you have first gotten to know people, without thinking of using that relationship for some benefit! such as traffic, or exchanging stumbles etc. So, I am not limiting my Stumble Upon friendships to blogging!

Hence I feel I should be able to add any number of people I want, to my friend list. Since that is not possible at the moment, and until SU lifts the 200 max friend limit, I have been thinking of two possible ways to make room in my friend list:

a) remove those people from my friend list who have not been active for weeks

b) remove myself from those people’s fan list, who I added as my friends but they have a) not added me and b) have not been active in a few weeks

What would you do in this situation?

And if you would like to add me as your friend on Stumble Upon, please don’t hesitate to do so.

Oh, I don’t think there is a soul out there who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of stumble upon, but if you are one of them, here is some good reading material:

A comprehensive guide to Stumbleupon – Dosh Dosh
Increasing your StumbleUpon audience – LinkBuildingBlog
Using StumbleUpon to connect with people in your niche – Caroline Middlebrook
Stumbleupon, you’ve stumbled into my heart – SEOMoz
How to draw Stumbleupon user to your blog – Problogger
The power of the Stumble – Dana Walert

Technorati Tags: Social Media, StumbleUpon

I cannot add my Stumble Upon Fans as friends is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Darren’s article asking people if they have written paid reviews on their blog came at an interesting time since I just got notified by pay per post rejecting the review posts I wrote sometime back!
Looking at the survey question responses on problogger, its clear that the blogging community is heavily divided on this issue and emotions run pretty high on both sides!

I wrote 2 (supposedly) paid review posts and both were a negative experiences for me. First one was on the car garage guy which got rejected because I included a video in the post! Well, I thought Tim Allen’s video would make an otherwise boring review post interesting but obviously the advertisers didn’t think so!

Second post was on pay day loans, a concept that I had never heard about, before reading on their site, and was titled Strapped for cash. This post also got rejected because pay per post guys cannot find a record of me first ‘reserving’ the ‘opportunity’ before writing about it! Even if they had found the record that I did everything I was supposed to do, they would have declined to pay because there is a link to another site in the post, my bad. Sometimes including interesting links only makes these otherwise bland posts a bit better, I thought – well, so much for what I think, they refused to pay!

I also thought the post headline was pretty good, if not better than a lot of the headlines Lyndon thought up if he were to write the same article!

Although I was pretty hesitant to write these kinds of posts to begin with, I confess I got tempted to earn $7 for some 50 to 100 word post!  Now that this blog got page ranked 4, I see some ‘opportunities’ for as much a $20 per post, which can add up to a nice pocket money at the end of the month.

But as soon as I wrote the posts, I received a few emails from my readers suggesting I shouldn’t take sponsored posts! I haven’t tried Simonne’s guide for excluding the sponsored posts category from RSS feeds yet , which I think is a brilliant idea, but I am wondering if this would really work with people!?! Hiding these posts from the feeds doesn’t mean people wouldn’t be upset if they decided to come to the blog to read the articles and we do want to encourage them to comment and participate in the discussions, don’t we?

So, there, as much as I would like to write some sponsored posts, I’m afraid of driving readers away from here. I am thinking of building another blog (without fresh perspectives of course), but building content to get it approved would require time!

What about you? Are you writing paid reviews on your blog?

Dilemma of Paid Reviews! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday was a nice day at fresh perspectives, weather wise and other wise, for a few good surprises! For one, Google was kind and assigned this blog a page rank of 4 and gave me a feeling of ‘official belonging’ to the blogosphere. What more? it came on my birthday (yes, not blog birthday, my birthday ;) so that was a nice surprise!

Now SportSayer would probably have to add one more page rank display button for blogs that got the PR for the first time because ‘has been’ or any other from his selection may not quite fit in this situation! May be a ‘lucked out’ button?

A real nice long vacation on birthday would also have been great idea and as a matter of fact I feel it should be mandatory to stay out of work for a few days on or around your birthday. What do you think?

Which brings me to this question:

If money or time were not an issue, and you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Where would you like to go? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

While the entire blog world has been abuzz with Page Rank dwindling from low to high and in between leaving many wondering about their future, Google guys are preparing to celebrate Halloween this weekend. What a nerve!

So, we all have heard time and again to not lose heart and learn from every situation, and continue to forge ahead in pursuit of our goals! One of the most important lessons from Google’s unpredictable behavior also proves that we cannot rely on just one source for our income!

Talking about income, I found another post that talks about 22 ways to build an emergency fund! Oh, Matt from blogging fingers also tells us of things that can earn passive income!  While talks of money making are all good, its also important to have fun doing it, so if you head over to Kim’s blog, you’ll find some neat contests and no mention of page rank and no such worries because life just has to go on!   And who knows? Some connections we make with people on net might change our lives for good? Such is a story of RennyBA and Diane: The Internet Love Story!

While we were all entering competitions and worrying about page rank etc, Successful-Blog celebrated its birthday and not surprisingly, had more than 660 birthday wishes from all over the world!  Watching blogging family come together to celebrate once again was awesome!

Liz is a generous and kind soul, and we all know that, but of course, organizing birthday parties on this scale are possible only if you learn The Art Of Planning: Making Before Taking The Plunge. I didn’t see anything on the menu where onions were an ingredient, but it doesn’t hurt to know how to cut an onion with fewer tears! – Oh, I was sent this link by Benjamin Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog on Digg! it was very useful! thanks Ben!

So, have some fun this weekend! ;)

Interesting posts around the blogosphere is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

You know Blog World Expo is being held on – November 8 – 9, 2007 in Las Vegas!

And according to their site, here are some

Important Blogging Stats

# Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
# More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
# Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
# 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
# 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
# 9% of internet users say they have created blogs .
# 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog .
# Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
# over 120 thousand blogs are created every day .
# There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day .
# 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs .
# 120,000 new blogs are created every day .
# 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006 .
# 51% of blog readers shop online .
# Blog readers average 23 hours online each week .

Those are some impressive stats and I am feeling fortunate to be part of them right now!

And now here is the pricing structure:

Now here are some of my thoughts on the Expo:

Say you are a new blogger and haven’t really been blogging for money or made any money from your blog but you would really want to attend something like this, listen to your favorite bloggers like Mike Arrington of TechCrunch or Brian Clark of Copyblogger or Arianna Huffington – The Huffington Post, * and many more that you would love to meet, but blogging is not what you do full time, and with pricing like that, how would you ever be able to accomplish it? Not to mention the air fare and your stay …

So I was wondering how many of the ‘not so known’ bloggers are going to this Expo? I remember reading at MsDanielle (via RSS) that she was going to be at the expo, I think, but she is someone known and popular, isn’t she?

So here is what I am curious about:

If you are going then:

1. Approximately how much something like this would cost (or how much are you spending?) including ALL expenses?

2. How long have you been blogging to feel the need to attend this expo?

3. How far are you traveling to get to Las Vegas, which is where the expo is being held!

If you are NOT going to the expo, then

1. What are your reasons? Is it financial? Time?

Some more questions out of curiosity:

If you are one of the ‘not-so-known-bloggers’, what do you think you would gain by spending the money that you couldn’t by reading [Business Blogging 101, Good to Great: Blogging & Profit Potential, Finding Your Voice] articles from the same ‘personalities’?

And with executive and entrepreneur conference priced at $700 which includes Networking Party, how many of the A-listers are going to be shaking hands with D-listers (or is it Z-listers?)? When you come back to your small blog, would they remember you? And would you be ready to do it again next year?

I confess that this is a post out of a bit of envy I am feeling at this time since I cannot attend the conference! I was in Las Vegas this summer and now I just don’t have the time [money is not an issue]. *sarcasm*

*UPDATE: October 23, 2007 -  I was contacted by Adriana Dunn of Huffington Post to let me know that Ariana Huffington will not be at the conference and that I remove her name from the scheduled speakers mention!

del.icio.us Tags: BlogWorldExpo

Blog World Expo is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

After reading Leo Babauta of ZenHabits on why bloggers WILL change the world and how we can help, I have to say, I felt motivated to do my bit and have been reading and educating myself on this issue. But, with thousands of web sites filled with information on what to do and what not to do to reduce the affects of global warming and save the environment, I feel kinda lost as far as writing something original!

So, in order to get a better perspective on what the big deal about this devastating phenomenon is, and not bombarding you with Top 50 things to do to stop Global Warming or writing another Global Warming Survival Guide, which obviously are far superior than what I could come up with, I thought of sharing some thought provoking videos I came across, made by National Geography , AndrewEdwardRoss, and elephantologist respectively!

note: this was supposed to be published at midnight, but guess my blog’s time needs to be fixed! but how?

UPDATE: (Idea copied from pelf…. See all other blog action day posts on technorati

Unity in diversity on Blog Action Day! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

When someone reads what we have written and takes the time to give their opinion on it, positive or negative, it becomes an extension of our thoughts as we think about their view, and respond with what we think and then someone else jumps in, and the conversation continues!

These online interactions can be much more enriching and rewarding if we follow basic tenets of communication, with an intent to cultivate a relationship with our visitors, because communication, as we all know, is a two way process, of giving and receiving information. Whether it is that we are speaking to someone offline or online, if we are courteous and respectful of others, the experience will be much more enjoyable for all involved.

So, what basic principles we should keep in mind to foster a good relationship with our site visitors?

Show Humility

This one I believe is the first and foremost to follow rule when interacting with anyone online. Getting more comments and more visitors can quickly start elevating the ego and its this time when we need to try our best to stay humble. If the tone on the blog is obnoxious or patronizing in any way, you can be sure to not get the visitor to attempt to contribute to whatever you want their opinion on. Don’t be preachy. Say whatever you want to say, because that is what freedom of speech is all about, BUT, say it with some modicum of thoughtfulness to your readers.

Get to know your readers

Welcome your readers to your blog. Ask them to introduce themselves. Make time to visit your reader’s blog and participate in discussion, make sure to thank them for visiting via a quick email and ask about their opinion of your blog. Some people are much more comfortable in voicing their opinions in an email if you ask, rather than talking about it on the site. Engage in conversation about their blog if they have one.

A remarkable technique for any relationship to flourish is to get to know the other’s likings and dislikings. Finding what your blog readers like or do not like, can help to give you ideas for your content, thereby making them interested in reading your site more. Join their social network communities. The basic principle is that the blogs and sites should be about your readers, not about you. Because if you want to write just about yourself, you would be writing it in a journal, wouldn’t you?

‘Listen’ to your readers

If the readers are providing some input on your blog, do not ignore that either.   Every once in a while the members of the blog reading community or new visitors offer up great advice on how certain aspects of your blog could be improved or what isn’t working. Give them feedback by thanking them and letting them know that you will consider their opinion!  This kind of interaction from the blog owner will make the reader feel valued on your site and would encourage them to come back to read your blog more.   Don’t be afraid to engage in conversation with them.

Learn to accept constructive criticism

Constructive criticism almost always results in improvements, provided we train ourselves to accept it. And an easy way to train ourselves is to accept the fact that we are not perfect and there is always room for improvement.

This goes hand in hand with developing a positive attitude. Try not to be defensive and argumentative with the commenters even if they are not praising your work or agreeing with you. Don’t take it as a personal attack, rather look at the *thing* that is being criticized! And do not forget to thank the critic for taking the time to read your article or evaluating something else that you have done or not done. After all, you want someone to visit your blog and that is exactly what they did! Handle negative comments with grace and care.

Be yourself

We all know that it is easy to get obsessed by the idea of making money via blogging and completely forget about the fact that most of us have lives away from computers. And that part of our life is still huge, for majority of bloggers anyway, so sharing a small part of that huge life with the readers will only help in building stronger connection with them. Injecting some warmth and passion in your writings can certainly enhance the blogging experience for the blogger as well as the readers.

Blogging is truly a medium that allows people to write with freedom, without having someone stand over their heads dictating what and how to write. So, write with passion. Write as if you are talking to your readers.

So, to sum up, recognizing and giving importance to the readers and making them a part of your site by talking about them in the posts while staying respectful will make the relationships last longer.

I am sure there are many other ways to build and develop relationships and I would love for you to fill in with the ones I missed.

What do you do to build and develop relationships with your blog readers?

This post is submitted to the upcoming Group Writing Project at CourtneyTuttle’s blog.

Technorati Tags: GroupWritingProject, Writing

How do you build relationships with your blog visitors? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Sometime ago I asked if you are able to resist to the temptations or end up yielding to them and the last few days its been a real test! And it reminded me of some of the quotes from that post like

“The only trouble with resisting temptation is that you may not get another chance”

Well as you all must have heard by now, problogger is celebrating its 3rd birthday and to appreciate its sponsors, Darren is giving away 500 prizes worth some $55,000, for doing various things like writing a post on a blogging tip or merely commenting on the site. How could I resist this? I may not get another chance right?

And this one is way too hard to resist for me… here is the explanation of this prize give away from Problogger itself:

“Be one of the FIRST consumers to own not one, but TWO 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors provided by DisplayLink!

These LG monitors are one of the first USB monitors out in the market powered by DisplayLink technology.

DisplayLink believes professional bloggers and web users would really appreciate the ease and convenience of lots of screen real estate so you can spread yourself out and accomplish more and enjoy more. Because these LG monitors use USB, you simply plug the monitors into your laptop or desktop, and start blogging away!”

Go enter the contest and take a chance at winning these beautiful monitors!

Now, I want to say whats been on my mind about this contest! If you have been following the comments, you’d notice that some people are too darn worried about providing problogger a link and are saying he is doing something wrong in asking people to link to his site – one person even said Darren wouldn’t link to anyone for the purpose of entering into a competition. Isn’t that a bit absurd? He has more than 30,000 readers and 1) no one has been running contests as big as this one 2) if half of the people were running contests each week and Darren was entering them, do you think his site would be read by us all? or would he be able to provide any value for us? And as Darren even responded to one of the comments, this is the only post requiring that link back to his site, out of hundreds of prizes! If you don’t want the monitors, don’t write this post and you can still enter to win other prizes – simple!! So why complain and ruin other people’s fun?

I called it absurd because none of us question him when we are getting insanely high traffic (in thousands) from participating in his writing projects, from which we all learn so much, get to know many new blogs that we wouldn’t otherwise, so here is my question…

Why do people get so uneasy so easily?

ProBlogger Birthday Bash is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Over $54,000 CASH give away in prizes!!   Is that insane or what?  Some people make that much in a year!  Yes, that’s true,  some people do!   And you know where that Grand Celebration is taking place right?  well, where else?   its our beloved problogger’s 3rd birthday celebration, where Darren is giving away prizes worth thousands of dollars for entering in Problogger Birthday Bash Competitions.   I am keeping my fingers crossed for winning something nice – yeah, I do need an ergonomic chair and a MAC – :) 

Well, that’s being a bit too greedy, isn’t it?   but then who knows?   Until you participate, you won’t know!   Remember that $4000 give away contest?  I won a Bonus Prize of a site wide text link with the contest blogger!  Contest Blogger is the best place for exposure and I can’t wait to be there….

Wait, I just found out something I had never known!   These two blogs are so different and are run by the same person?   No wonder both blogs are loved by whoever comes across them… I found romance tracker during one of Darren’s top 5 writing projects  where he wrote how to find the person of your dreams :)  I vaguely remember that I had commented on his post but now see that he doesn’t allow comments! 

What a memory I have, don’t you think?  :) 

I am just very excited to have my link displayed at Phil’s blog!   Thanks once again David!

So,  head on over to ProBlogger to celebrate and enjoy!

Prizes Galore is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Ken wrote a post on e-books provided by some popular and successful bloggers where they share their secrets to blogging success.

According to Ken, he has read “100s of books on blogging and Internet Marketing and how to make money online” and as much as I have known him, he is a hard worker and has all of the things that are necessary to grow one’s blog.

I am no where close to claiming I have read that many books but below is a list of some of my favorites. I may have missed some that I have downloaded and read [or downloaded and have not read yet] and I will add them as they come to mind [or as I find them on my pc :)]

But first, here are the e-books Ken listed:

1. Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint
2. Aaron Wall’s SEObook
3. John Chow’s Make Money Online Ebook
4. Chitika’s Blog Bash -30 days 30 experts in April 2007 when 30 popular bloggers wrote on wide ranging blogging topics
5. jack Humphrey’s Authority Black Book

And here is my favorites list:

1. Seth Godin’s KnockKnock is a “take on how to use the new online marketing tools to make any website work more effectively” downloadable from a mirror site by Mr. Salt (Paul) …
2. another one of Seth’s books called whos there; In Seth’s words
   

   Who’s There is not an ebook about how to write better or how to follow the traditional conventions about formatting and building a blog. It’s not designed to sell you one service instead of another, either.

   Instead, I divide the blog world into three groups and turn my attention to one. And in particular, I try to sell you hard on how building a blog asset can have a spectacular impact on you, your career, your organization and your ideas.

3. Chris Garrette’s killer flagship content, talks not only why you should have Flagship Content but also gives content creation ideas and critical success factors, and most important of all, how to promote the blog with such quality content. The ebook can be obtained by subscribing to Chris’s RSS feed – follow instructions here
4. Lorelle VanFossen’s ever popular Blogging Tips which is available from Blog Herald’s new bookshop [for a limited time, in honor of the 2007 Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference, the book is available for USD $12.95.
5. Wendy from eMoms has a 10 Days to a Better Blog FREE eCourse ranging from monetization, design to copywriting and even networking ideas and much much more.. I actually took this valuable course and every time I open one of those emails, I find something new that I can do with the blog
6. Mig wrote an SEO book for WordPress blogs that has wealth of information on how to set up your blog for search engines
7. Jane May from Daily Web Ideas – her book titled – An essential guide to building successful web sites has practical tips that are easy to read and understand

More downloadable e-books

1. Jane May also mentions a 22 page guide on increasing site traffic by John Robinson of Site Fever, which looks pretty good and I hadn’t heard of
2. I came across Anuj Seth’s blog and found this recommendation from Shane Navratil, on importance of branding and how it can make or break your business/blog.

UPDATE: Of course there are many others that you can sign up for free and I recommend Perry Marshall’s AdWords Course (aff).

If you know of any other e-books/ e-courses on blogging or Internet Marketing written by your favorite blogger, would you share them with us?

del.icio.us Tags: blogging, e-courses, e-learning, e-books

E-books / E-Courses for Achieving Success at Blogging is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I read the top 50 most influential bloggers list posted by Northxeast the other day as you all must have too. As is expected from most of such list posts, its being read and linked to even today by many. What intrigued me about this list was that it did not include a lot of the female bloggers who are equally or even more popular in some cases. As I was contemplating who got included and how many female bloggers were left out and such things, I also was thinking that it is possible there are fewer female bloggers than male bloggers – obviously, but then I read Shona’s post over at rich minx along similar thoughts, which revealed there were only 6 female bloggers listed in that top 50 most influential bloggers!! This is obviously a very interesting observation and I wonder why there are only 6 bloggers, why are not more females included in the list? I am by no means undermining the female bloggers included in that list, but I do feel that emomsathome by Wendy, successful-blog by Liz and the all encompassing WordPress blog by Lorelle and Search Engine Guide by Jennifer Laycock are blogs that are known to provide unparalleled support to the blogging community and definitely needed a mention in that list.

As I thought more about this, I was wondering if majority of the girls were even reading some of the most popular blogs or they limit themselves to reading just the ones in close proximity of their own communities or friends’ blogs! I personally have known and sporadically read most (not all) of the blogs listed in the top 50 and I was curious as to how many females read those blogs or even knew about them. So of course to quench my thirst, I used a nifty little tool that was created by Philipp Lenssen, author of Google Blogoscoped, to check out the male/female ratios of these blogs.

I checked the top 50 blogs listed by Northxeast (some couldn’t be found by the tool which is a bit odd) but also included some of the blogs I read along with of course the female bloggers that I think should have been included in that list. Most of the ratios seem intuitive when you think about the site, but I was particularly surprised at Chris Garrette’s blog in that only 2% of the females are reading his blog! So here are the he/she ratios of the popular sites:

Some of the blogs that I read look like this

This is the funniest result I have seen so far!

and this is how my blog looks like

I am not sure if such studies have been done before or if its even possible to find this ratio accurately and I have no idea how Philipp Lenssen calculates it either, but it is an interesting overview.

And I wonder a few things about the results…

Why are more females not blogging?

Why are more females not reading ‘most influential’ blogs?

Did Northxeast mean most influential ‘technology’ bloggers?

If not, do you think any of these blogs would start considering blogging on topics that are of interest to females, in order to increase their readership?

I just hope more and more female bloggers start reading some of the very knowledgeable blogs out there and if more of them started blogging, I am sure they will only add to the richness of the blogosphere.

I would love to know what you think of these ratios!

Technorati Tags: community, top50

Male-Female Ratios of 50 Most Influential Blogs and some is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I am sure many of us have fallen prey to procrastination and the reasons may not always be so clear, but one reason that probably is common to all of us is laziness and simply not wanting to do something when it is supposed to be done.  The ‘thing’ that we should be doing doesn’t get done for whatever reason and soon it becomes a problem that is out of our hands and could lead to anxiety and stress which obviously can further overwhelm us!    So, its really a vicious circle of unwanted events that we often get trapped in.  

You know how I started thinking about this?    A few days ago, Liz Strauss from Successful Blogs had posted on her blog about the Blog Day 2007 – which was supposed to be on August 31, but Liz posted it on September 3rd!  Liz was generous to include me in the list of blogs she introduced on this day and I was thinking that I knew about this event a bit in advance but kept doing other things and thinking I’ll get to it but never did,  and then I completely forgot about it.  I read it on Liz’s site and felt a bit ashamed of my neglect but then got busy in doing other things and it never got done!   So I went through those emotions I mentioned up there,  guilt, anxiety and then stress and all.   But because this is blogging, and no one is standing with a gun on my head,  I very conveniently told myself “Good things happen to those who wait and, that’s why I procrastinate” …  well,  we all know there are times when not doing some things on time could get us in serious trouble so it is important to look at how to solve this problem.

As they say, acknowledging the problem is the first step toward solving it, so then,  lets find out

Why do we procrastinate?

See, in order to make that Blog Day 2007 post,  all I needed to do was to introduce to you 5 new Blogs, preferably the ones that were different from my own culture, point of view and attitude (per the site’s instructions).   I visit many blogs all day long and many of them are very different than my own point of view and many are from different countries and cultures, so how could I not be diligent in taking notes and making links and posting a great post?     

I procrastinated because either 1) I am too lazy to do what I am supposed to do  OR   2) I would rather do that is more enjoyable at this time OR 3) I have poor decision making skills.

We don’t really need an example of number 1, as we all can be lazy at times!  But for number 2,  As I sat down to write this article, I opened my FireFox browser and voila, I have six tabs already set to open on the browser that take me to more interesting stuff to read and enjoy than what I am writing and it is easy to get distracted.    And then there is StumbleUpon.   It is too easy to get distracted on SU.  (Next post idea on what is on my home page).   The 3rd reason is all too familiar to all of us also.  Not being able to make a decision on which task to do first if we have a lot on our plate, not being able to assign priorities to projects can make some of the more important one fall through the cracks.  

Ways to overcome it

1. Once the cause of not doing something is known, it becomes easier to take some action to overcome the problem.  Interruptions such as mindless Internet browsing and television watching takes up a lot of the time and the only way to remove these is to simply shut them off and try to do something else.  
2. Keeping short term goals and to-do lists will break lengthier projects down into doable fragments that are more achievable.
3. Prioritize the to-do lists with most important tasks on top obviously but also by assigning more time for them.
4. I work better under pressure, when strict deadlines are approaching, which is usually when I wait till the last minute.  That is when I am able to focus best and I know I don’t have the time to get distracted.  And I am able to produce quite good results at this last minute, and I am sure many people do the same!  But there is one huge drawback to working at the last minute, there is no time to review the work.   So starting to tackle those to-do lists early will get you through them easier and leave plenty of time to re-visit the results, without feeling overwhelmed by them.
5. Have someone else check up on your progress.  In blogging when we are participating in group projects or carnivals, we are able to produce results on time because there is a deadline to meet and we know there are other people working on the same project and we want to be part of the community.  Once the projects or carnivals are over,  traffic reduces, and we feel like no one is reading our blog anyway, and likelihood of falling behind in posts is much more.  Peer pressure works great in blogging.  

    

So knowing what makes us want to put off important tasks and then tackling that particular aspect of our lives with a little bit of organization, time management and prioritization,  could set us on a path to producing more and probably blogging more and writing needed posts on time!   I have already missed the blog day as you know but for this particular celebration, its the the intention that I want to believe in more than just one date out of the year,  so look forward to the new blogs introduced here soon.

If you have also missed the Blog Day 2007,  go ahead and introduce 5 blogs that you have been reading.  

Is procrastination a habit? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

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