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.

Are you a fan of any particular social media site for networking or bookmarking? If yes, then this is the project you want to pay close attention to for the next month.

Vivien of InspirationBit has organized a Mega Social Media Project that is being hosted by multiple bloggers for multiple social media sites.

As you can tell from the post title, I will be hosting this project for Mixx, Propeller (formerly Netscape) AND Squidoo.

Here are the rules to participate in this project:

• Write a post on your blog and share with us how do you integrate this social media site (Mixx or Propeller or Squidoo) into your blogging or work and tell us about your good or bad experience(s), how would you compare this social networking site with others, what do you like or don’t like about it, how did you benefit from becoming a frequent user of this site, what secrets have you learned about it, what tips or warnings would you like to inform others about?
• Contact me with your name, email and a permalink to your post. If you don’t have your own blog, you can always write a guest post on my blog, or simply send me your thoughts by contacting me in person.
• Once I collect the links from all participants and publish them on my blog, you can write another post and link to either all or only your favourite articles by other bloggers.
• You are allowed to contribute only one article per project/site. You are more than welcome to visit other participating blogs that host projects dedicated to the different social media sites and take part in those projects by submitting your articles about other social networking sites.

Remember, this project is spread over several blogs and there are other social media sites that are hosted at the following blogs.

• del.icio.us. Host: Aaron Stroud from On Financial Success
• Facebook. Host: Ina from Inspiring Wear
• Flickr & Zooomr. Host: Brian Auer from Epic Edits
• Twitter, LinkedIn. Host: Isabella Mori from Change Therapy and Alphablogs
• StumbleUpon, YouTube, MySpace. Host: Karen Zara from a1-fan-fun
• Sphinn. Host Simonne from All Tips And Tricks
• Second Life. Host Dandellion from Metaverse
• Mixx, Netscape, Squidoo. Host: Pearl from Fresh Perspectives
• Sk*rt, Blogging Zoom, Bvibes. Host: JHS from Colloquium
• Digg and Reddit. Host: Vivien from InspirationBit

Here are the deadlines for this project:

• Start Date: Monday, January 21st
• End Date: Friday, February 22nd
• Results Publication Date: Monday, February 25th
• Final Collaborative Results will be published on Inspiration Bit on Friday, February 29th

I invite all of my readers to participate and write about any of the sites being covered in this project. Even if you are not a very big social media site user, you have one month to try any one of the sites and jot down your observations, tips and tricks for using them efficiently etc.

Vivien is also giving away the cash prize of $125 she won at Daily Blog Tips and All Tips and Tricks, to five project organizers whose projects turn out to be the most successful in terms of number and quality of entries.

Now, I want to say that its not the monetary value of the prize that motivated me to host this project on fresh perspectives, rather, I always wanted to host a group writing project here and Vivien’s ongoing encouragement and support has made it easier. I hope you all participate in the project and learn from tons of articles on various social media sites.

Technorati Tags: group writing Project, social Media, Mixx, Squidoo, Propeller

Mixx, Propeller or Squidoo? Social Media Mega Project 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.

Okay, that was the first for me too… I mean, I had never heard the word Blogapalooza before either… but this has been a very popular term in the past few weeks at MiddleZoneMusings where Robert held another Group Writing Project called What I Learned from 2007 and you had to pick the posts that taught you something.

I am glad I was able to make the deadline as the project ended last night.  Today all the entries are up at Robert's Blog – Middle Zone Musings. There are some fantastic entries if you are looking for some inspiration.

PS:  you are welcome to check out the most commented list to see the included posts as one of the links is messing up and Robert will be fixing it later tonite.

Blogapalooza – What I Learned from 2007 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 always say that Group Writing Projects are an easy way to blog. Someone else has already done the thinking and picked a topic for you to write your experience or opinions on.

And “Spread the Love NOW” couldn’t have come at a better time for me. There are a lots of the things in this project that resonate with me now. One, that the project is to write something about Compassion, a character trait that I saw a lot of recently when my very close friend passed away. Second, because compassion is a trait that I am very passionate about and I feel we can’t have enough of. Third, the project is organized by the three monks, Albert of Urban Monk, Kenton of Zen Inspired Self Development and Wade of The Middle Way, who so passionately write on all of the subjects that are very dear to me such as meditation, Buddhism, consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and self improvement.

As I understand compassion, it is what we feel when we see someone else in pain and we automatically are compelled to do something to relieve them of that pain. Feelings of selfless caring and kindness accompanied by love, regard and patience.

It is easy to find perfect examples of compassion all around us. I’ve been overwhelmed with so much care and kindness in the hospitals, where so many people are suffering and the nurses are helping the patients and their families with those tasks that sometimes even the closest family members avoid doing.

Doctors had told my friend’s family that there was nothing more they could do to save her. The nurses, the physicians, other staff members and just about everyone who had been taking care of her for months or had come in contact with her, as if turned into some sort of a saint, bending over backwards to help us with whatever we needed. It was overwhelming to see so much kindness and so much love and caring. These people would hug us when we were down in the dumps, they would cry with us and listen to us, talk to us about their own sad times.

And it did not matter what color, creed, race or religion someone belonged to in that setting of the hospital. This was in the cancer care institute and majority of the patients were with advanced stages. Its a setting where every one, regardless of their cultural background, becomes aware in a strange manner that we are all connected with each other via some strange common source and that we all have the same destiny in the end. Perhaps, that is the reason you can find everyone helping each other out in a most peaceful manner, trying to do whatever it takes to comfort each other. A true sense of altruism prevailed there. Amidst all the grief, their kindness made it easier for us to go through the ordeal.

As Dalai Lama said, “we do not need to become religious, or believe in any ideology, we just need to develop good human qualities to be happy.”

I think if we all exercised similar caring, compassion, kindness and love under normal circumstances, in our daily lives, we could be a much happier society. Happier societies would raise happier and more confident children. And when a person’s self esteem is healthier, he is more successful in life and does not feel the need to ‘attack’ any other and ’snatch’ from others.

==========================

I am so glad Isabella from Change Therapy tagged me for this project. Thanks Isabella.

The Rules of the Game
This is a joint effort by the Three Monks – Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net. The watches are kindly provided by the coolest timepiece company ever – The Now Watch.
To participate –
1) Write a post as described above. You’re encouraged, although not required, to link to all three of the judges.
2) Contact any one of us, either by emailing, or leaving a comment in one of the judge’s posts.
3) You’re encouraged also to spread the word, tag your friends, and ask them to participate.
4) On 5 January 2008, the three judges will look at all the entries, pick the winners, and publish a list, so we can all share the links and traffic.
5) The results will be posted on 10 January 2008 on all three judge’s blogs. Winners will be contacted for mailing address details so we can send them to you!

UPDATE: I completely forgot I was supposed to tag some, so here it goes.. I’d love to hear what you have to say on compassion…

RennyBA,  Kaylee , David, Pelf, Aruni, Ad Tracker, Kim, Sueblimely, Mig

Technorati Tags: compassion, personal development, blog, Group Writing Project

Spreading the Love via Compassion 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 the year comes to an end, its time to reflect upon our accomplishments and a time to revisit some goals, offline as well as online.

I started this blog in April of this year, and at that time I had no idea about how long I would be blogging and didn’t have a clue if anyone would read it let alone become a subscriber of the blog.

I loved making connections with people all over the globe and learning about different aspects people shared about their lives, difficulties and successes.

But then somewhere along the line, I started thinking about monetizing this blog. Since everyone in the blogosphere is talking about different ways you can make money, I confess I was swayed in that direction and started putting those banners in the sidebar. Without even realizing, I got too hung up on signing up for different affiliate programs and trying different banners, all of which weren’t making any money, zero, nil! Well, because this is not a product blog, this is about interesting observations. And Some of you even asked me to clean up the sidebars but I just never took the time to do anything about it, or to confess, I found it hard to let go of those dangling carrots!

Until just a couple of days ago, when I came across a Group Writing Project about your Blogging Goals for 2008 at Daily Blog Tips via a most generous and lovely soul Karen Zara, who I recently met via Luciano’s Lists Project

So, in order for me to think of my blogging goals for 2008, I started reviewing what I was able to accomplish since I started this blog. Read on:

• Currently the Page Rank is at 4 – would like to take it to a 5 although I keep hearing that is difficult
• Alexa Rank is <70,000 – would like to bring it <40,000
• Technorati Rank broke the top 10k and even though technorati keeps fluctuating, I am sure the blog will continue to do better – my goal would be to bring it in the top 5k
• I never thought I would have even a single subscriber and was thrilled when the first time I logged in the FeedBurner and found there were 11 subscribers, now that number sits at 180 – I would love to bring it to 500 ( and if you like reading this blog, please subscribe via RSS feed or via email and help me get to my goals sooner than the next Christmas ) :)
• This blog was linked to by problogger in one of his speedlinking posts, by emoms and by ZenHabits and together these sites brought me a lot of traffic, great new bloggers and a good feeling of getting a bit known out there. So, for the new year, is it too unrealistic to want to be linked to by some of the other famous bloggers like copyblogger, successful-blog, Maki and such?

I’d also like to achieve something much more than the numbers

• get into a regular posting schedule
• clearly define the areas I want to blog about
• get better with writing
• get in the habit of participating more in the social networking
• write more guest posts
• get over my shyness – a huge hurdle in accomplishing just about everything
• learn about affiliate marketing
• learn php and CSS
• start a couple of niche sites

Some of these might be too unrealistic as I work full time and cannot devote as much time to blogging as I would really like, but it sure feels good to just have some concrete goals laid out here and have a clear vision.

I will sound contradictory to my own goals above in saying that one of my goals will be to not really get hung over the numbers as it has affected my writing and posting frequency. And the only way to do that is to not check the stats that often. As a matter of fact, I plan to not display the RSS subscriber numbers to avoid getting depressed when suddenly these numbers drop.

Have you thought of what you want to accomplish with your blog next year?

Technorati Tags: Goals, Self-improvement, Blogging, GroupWritingProject

Have you thought of your blogging goals for 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.

Simonne asks ‘What is your best blogging achievement?” in the writing project she is hosting! How can I call any one of the milestones as my best blogging achievement ever? Each of the events has stood out bigger and better than the ones before and left me completely in awe! There were times when I was not getting a single comment on my posts and was overjoyed at getting my first comment from Grace of NeonScent! Since then, I have been showered with so many friendships, so many comments and so much support that I can’t even begin to count!

Looking back at some of the events, I wonder, could my first guest post at freshblogger, when I was still a “new kid on the block”, be counted as my biggest achievement? Or was it when I got tagged with my first meme? I was really happy to be tagged by Kim and it meant I had gained someone’s attention and they thought my blog worthy of including. Then I got showered with tons of awards which put me on cloud nine! All of this encouraged me to gather some courage and even participate in a contest (albeit at the last minute, because being that I am a bit reserved and shy, almost to the point of being called an introvert and I think like a million times before participating) in which I ended up as one of the runners-up and also won me a text-link at the contest site!

It was during one of these days that I had commented on a post when Darren told me he had subscribed to my RSS feed… Now that was a huge thing for me if you remember and I couldn’t contain my happiness. Could that be considered my biggest achievement? Or when Andy Beard dugg my article on male-female ratios of 50 most influential blogs ? and Darren stumbled it?

OR should I consider my latest post on Best 101 Lists as one of my best achievements when it got popular on StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious as well as Mixx – all at the same time, bringing me tons of backlinks, more than 12,000 visitors all in a short amount of time and the technorati rank in the top 10K?

So, I don’t think I can call any one of these as my best blogging achievement! Each one of the above listed events was an achievement in itself and brought immense satisfaction and joy. But all of these achievements had one and only one aspect in common, and that is the people, who either came to comment on this blog, or subscribed, and slowly became cherished friends!

And, even though it is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with writing every day during holidays, shorter days of winter and amidst other life obligations, I am having the best of time doing it. I love the fact that I can talk to people with different backgrounds and cultures all over the world. And THAT I think is my best blogging achievement.

My Best Blogging Achievement 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.

Group Writing Projects are always fun to participate in that they not only make for a nice linkbait, they also spark new discussions with new bloggers. Building Lists as part of the group project becomes even more enjoyable and useful because they offer how-to’s and best-of’s.

But if you were to pick top 3 from a huge list of participants, what are the things you look for?

That’s the dilemma going on this week at Luciano’s Lists Group Writing Project that I also participated in with my Best 101 Lists. The task is humongous for Luciano and I have no idea how he is going to handle it.

So, first, here are some of the things that come to my mind when picking the best: (although I may not be able to apply these for my selection)

• List should be fun for all readers. Many times lists are made with each point not clearly different than the one before, which can easily become boring;
• To avoid the above, Inject a little humor;
• Leaving a list incomplete can sometimes be a good idea so others can suggest and add to it, a way of encouraging participation;
• Inject controversy, as it more often than not sparks discussions, which always helps to build community

So, there, with some of these pointers, I hope the task to pick the top three would become a bit easier for you all.

Although I am still finding it very difficult to do but nevertheless, I will list some of my favorites, in no particular order.

After all, its Luciano who gets to decide, right? :)

UPDATE 1: I stand corrected! No Luciano will not be ‘voting’ for any lists as he reiterated in the comments here…

1. 5 surefire ways of increasing comments on your blog
2. 12 WordPress Editors You Can Choose
3. 35 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers
4. 7 Tricks You Need To Fight Procrastination
5. 26 Ways to Change the World
6. 10 Life lessons Learned While Camping
7. Six Savvy Reasons Why You Should Travel Light
8. Escape The Rut
9. 5 Blogging Ups, 5 Blogging Downs and 10 Blogging Tips
10. No Cost Business Tools: 37 Free Applications that Make Your Life Easier

Okay I am done for the moment because there a too many of great lists submitted in that project…67 to be exact. Do check them out, there is something for everyone to enjoy!

UPDATE 2: Sunday, Dec. 2nd, 2007!

Seems like blogging is all I do these days! Here is another group of lists that I enjoyed

100 Ways To Promote A Startup by Jason Drohn
17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners by Dr. Mani
18 Tips to Become a Productive Blogger by Monika Mundell
21 Punching Tips On Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization by Etienne Teo
8 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople by Daniel Sitter
7 Powerful Tips to Overcome Failure by Donald Latumahina
10 Ways To Work Through Your Workout by Gal Josefsberg
ten things i didn’t know until last week by Blaiq
100 Resources To Improve Your Career, Relationships And Money by Lawrence Cheok
3 Things I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now by Stephen Hopson
5 reasons (not) to drink coffee by Lodewijkvdb

Rest of the lists that I just couldn’t leave out and I am sure I will be coming back to:

5 Ways To Win A Blog Contest by Erz
5 Reasons Why I Bought a Domain by WishBoNe
5 Ways to Become the Perfect Idiot by Lori
15 Tips to Prevent Repetitive Strain Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by CSS
100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann
10 Ways to Survive the Writers’ Strike by Cynthia Boris
100List – 100 Things I can do to make more money. by Dj Wright
Your Top 10 Inspirational Quotes by Sparky
My Top-10 Personal Development Blogs by Marco
The Quitter’s Checklist by Em Dy
Thirteen Reasons Why WordPress is Superior To Blogger by JHS
Get out of debt Quick: 7 Tips by Tejvan
Six Simple Steps to Remembering and Living the Abundant Life You are Meant to Live by Anita Pathik Law
To Do To Make Tomorrow Better by Bob
Top 7 Paid Review Writing Mistakes You Can Avoid by Prince John
9 Ways To Achieve Success in Life by Adebola Oni
40 ways to make your mind your playground by Fier
5 Crash Course Tips in Viral Marketing by John Murch
100 Sites I Seek Inspiration From by Iain Hamp
5 Things That I Believe To Be Lies by Krizza
List of Classes by Priscilla Palmer
Top 23 Motivation Tips, Tricks and Tactics from the Blogosphere by Mike Ambrose
Twelve Days of Classic Country Christmas by Scott
5 ways to crack or reset a forgotten Windows XP administrator password by Aseem Kishore
10 Things To Consider Before Acting As Your Own Contractor by Shawn Van Dyke
A Tester’s Dream – 5 steps to revive a Rejected Bug! by Debasis Pradhan
My Five Wish-list Classes I Would Enroll In by Al
10 Ways To Improve Your Personality by Z Hereford
The Top Ten Internet Business Ideas by John
3 Ways to Bring Back the Joy to the Holidays by Karen Lynch
Best 101 Lists by Pearl
13 encouraging questions by Isabella Mori
100 Things To Write A List Of 100 About by Kotsengkuba
Lovecraft & Cthulhu Christmas List by Cullen Bunn
List Of Why Blogs Are A Female Gender by Domtan
100 Things to do Before I Die by Joseph Gibbs
150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders Ever by Jacob Share
10 Productive Ways for Moms to “Relax” by Neena
10 Tips on How to Watch a Horror Movie When You are a Scaredy Cat by Migraine Chick
100 Ways to Personally Conquer Chaos at Work by Judy Martin
50 Ways to Start a Conversation by Dee
How to prepare for Christmas by Ajay
7 Seven tips for students to success by Xoel Cardigan
6 Steps to Take Writing Ideas From WordPress Themes by Karen Zara
What you think is what you see: 4 Ways to stop negativity by Holli Jo

Phew!!! Make sure to read ALL of the lists at your leisure! there is wealth of information in them!

What To Look For In List Posts 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.

When I posted Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture video back in September, I watched it again and again and was amazed at how much courage this man has, how fearless he is and how happy he was, despite the fact he knew his world was coming to end, Literally!!  Now look at another clip “The lecture revisited”:

Here is another clip that is very inspiring and makes you think a little differently about your life!

These are people who found ways to stand out from the crowd.

These are people who did not allow their lives to fall in chaos. When I watch their winning attitudes, my own problems and heartaches seem trivial.  And my thinking goes something like this:

• I am not going to obsess about what I do not have, rather I am going to concentrate on what I do have;
• I will do everything to develop resilience and not let anything break me;
• What can I do to achieve my dreams?
• What can I do to be the best?

People turn their lives around all the time, especially in the face of adversity.  We all have the power to turn negatives into positives and find contentment.  All of us face failures, setbacks and all sorts of problems in life and many times, these things show up without any warning.

Often if we try and stay focused and not let bad times take over our emotions, not lose perspective by constantly being afraid of the unknown, we can handle just about any level of distress without going insane.   Because, we don’t always get to choose what we might have to face and what will come into our lives,  but we can choose how we react to the circumstances.

Staying positive will make it easier to go through rough times, than whining about them and getting more depressed!

How do you handle adversities, failures and negative circumstances?

This post is inspired by the Think Different Challenge hosted at I will change your life! I wasn’t tagged for it, but I loved the idea. If you would like to join and write about what makes you think different, just follow the rules:

The Rules
1. Write a new blog post in which you “think different”. Interpret the challenge the way you want and include a link and/ or trackback to this post so that readers know the rules of the challenge. Feel free to use the above banner (inspired, of course, by Seth Godin).
2. Include a link and/or trackback to the blogger who tagged you.
3. At the end of your post, go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to email them to let them know they have been tagged.

Think Different and Overcome Negativity 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.

Listed below are the most practical time management tips and techniques that some of our fellow bloggers use to continue to manage excellent blogs along with their usual life responsibilities. These tips were submitted to the Time Management Group Writing Project hosted by our very own, bright and talented Vivien from InspirationBit last month. For me, the real dilemma begins now ‘coz I’ve got to find time to read through these tips. If you missed participating in the project because you didn’t have the time, these tips will certainly provide some benefit.

1. All For Time and Time For All: The 10 Commandments of Time Management by Simonne
2. Lessons in Time Management by Em Dy
3. Guru Natalie weighs in on Time Management by Natalie
4. 9 Reasons to Wake Up Early by Y.Graf
5. Time Management For Bloggers and Photographers by Brian
6. Manage time by sorting your blog comments in 6 ways by Bes
7. My Troubles With Time Management by Ronald
8. It’s URGENT, Urgent I say… but is it? by Marques
9. Time Management: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Jenny Mcb
10. Time Management – Don’t put Everything off until later by TeaMouse
11. 8 Work At Home Time Management Strategies by Char
12. Time, Time, Time by WG
13. Thoughts On Managing A Precious Resource by Ajay
14. Time Management – tackling K2
15. Time Management Tips for Using Email
16. Stress Can Be Good by Lauren Mari
17. Secrets To Successful Time Management by Gleb Reys
18. 3 simple time management tips by Carey
19. How I manage time between blogging and studies by Shankar
20. Better living through sticky notes by Lisa
21. How I Manage My Time by Keith
22. 6 Essential Time Management Strategies by Randa
23. Time Management: Managing Large Multi-User Projects by Jennifer
24. A Routine Shall Set You Free by Brooke
25. Supercharge Your Job Search by Saving Time by Jacob
26. Time Makes Me Cuckoo by Shelley
27. 11 Time Management Tips – How I manage Work and Blog by Ashish
28. Simple Tips for Managing Time by Pearl
29. Strategies for Effective Time Management by Janie
30. Time management: the un-techniques by Peter
31. dIstressed or dEstressed? by Em Dy
32. Freelancing And Time Management by Tara
33. Internet Is The Devil In Disguise by Vivien

Thank you for putting these together Vivien.

Do you have time to read through these? 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.

Technorati tracks more than 100 million blogs for updates and there are tons of excellent blogs but we know that not all of these are authored by full time bloggers. People have many responsibilities, families to take care of, school, studies, jobs and other activities but they still manage to blog and fulfill other hobbies.

I have felt overwhelmed at times and constantly struggle to ‘find’ time to do everything that I want to do. Many times I am successful at completing my obligations, and others I am not. Just like Vivien who is hosting a Group Writing Project at Inspiration Bit, I have often wondered why we couldn’t have more hours in the day, to finish everything we wanted to?

But I am always experimenting different ways to come up with better means to organize my days and tasks. Even though I try my best, I know a lot of the time gets wasted with unimportant stuff that could be avoided. The chunk of my time (8 hours plus the commute time) gets spent at work and I am left with doing more in less time.

My favorite method to keep track of different tasks has always been ‘To Do’ lists. I used to make them in a simple note pad, then I moved to word and even wrote them in excel! The problem with making these types of lists was that they are on one of the computers, either at home or at work! There was no synchronization. So I would print them out and carry them with me at all times. But the printed copy of the to do list often got lost amongst other papers in the pocket books and that didn’t help a whole lot.

Then, about a year or so ago, I came across a service called Backpack by 37Signals, that lets you organize your stuff online. Backpack allows you to not only create shareable to-do lists, but also has content creation facility, calendars, lets you add pages that can also be shared with other people, have the reminders set up and even emailed or SMS to your mobile phone. I have been using the service for just about everything I need to remember and its been a life saver so far because I can access the organizer anywhere with a net connection. The basic service is free.

Another very useful application I have used to keep notes and reminders is Stickies for windows. These are small yellow sticky notes that can be put on the desktop. Stickies also supports multi-computer synchronization and I have been loving the application.

My organization, as far as keeping track of various aspects of all of my projects or tasks is concerned, has improved greatly with the use of these two applications. Here are some additional tips that have also been working for me in order to stay organized and focused:

1. Starting my day about 20 minutes earlier than usual to get a head start, even if it is checking my email or reading the news headlines on the pc
2. Doing the most important thing/task in the morning hours while the mind is still fresh
3. Processing similar tasks all at once – reading feeds twice a day, commenting on other blogs all at once,
4. Stick the printed to-do-list to the refrigerator so I can review it every morning
5. Watch less television
6. I review the priorities every few days and re-arrange them if need be
7. My most important tip has been writing and re-writing goals after breaking the bigger long term goals into smaller goals, and then focusing on just the short term goals.
8. As crazy as it may sound, I have been monitoring the time spent on various activities which I review periodically to see which activity I spend my most time on, could avoid or do differently

How do you manage to keep a balance while multi-tasking?

Technorati Tags: personal Development, Group Writing Project

Simple Tips for Managing Time 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.

Early this month when Darren announced the 31 days to building a better blog project, I decided I was going to work along with his assignments and for the first 3 or 4 days I did do the assignments. But as soon as he started talking about the dreaded About page, I gave up!! Well, I would like to report that my About page is about done and I have made it visible! I will need to change it but for now it is what it is!

I hope if any of you are doing those ‘assignments’ , you will let me know in the comments so we can join in the fun together! For today, yesterday, the assignment was to Comment on a blog that you have never commented on before! This morning, I had been reading Chris Garrett’s blog and you know I love quotations especially the ones that make us think, Chris had a post up about quotations and I gathered some courage to comment on it and voila – his first time commentator plug in sent me a short welcome script!

So, that was my first comment of the day, on a blog I had never commented before although I read it often. It’s funny I have been looking into redirecting www and non www of my domain for some days and Chris has a post on it right on the front page along with some links to other useful resources. Anyways, since this comment was not part of the assignment, I decided to comment on another blog =) and this time I decided to dive in today’s submission list at of course Problogger, and picked the blog that appeared at the end of the list, this tip was submitted by CornerScribe on Finding Blog Post Ideas! That is exactly what I need these days! Ideas for my posts. Check out this post and you are sure to come back with some good ideas. I could not comment on this blog because for some reason you have to be logged in to comment!?! I am not sure why you would do that, but I think it was a nice post so stumbled it!

I was on a comment spree so from amongst my technorati favorites, sorted by freshness, I found everybody go to and had a good laugh at Ali J’s most recent post reviewing a new web 2.0 start up called thoof. Ali’s funny twist on how this company’s name might have been founded was thoroughly enjoyable ! As a matter of fact I found Ali’s blog to be a great find for me, I subscribed because I will be going back to read more of his useful posts.

Now the importance of commenting 1) find new and useful material 2) these people might check out your blog

What do you think? Have you commented on a blog today? Do you ever comment on the blogs that you subscribe to?

Comment Away! 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 authored post By RT Cunningham of Untwisted Vortex. I do not think RT needs any introduction in the blogging world, that is because from May 2006 till today, he has written 769 articles that have been viewed for over 500,000 times! Look in his Top Posts. RT's topics range from Blogging Tips to Celebrities to Marketing and Promotion and he even has posts on Philippines Government since he has been living in Philippines for some time now. As a matter of fact, I believe just about everyone who goes to his site will end up spending hours and come away completely entertained as well learning something new. I am glad I found RT's site and if you haven't yet visited his site, please do. You'll be glad you did. Thanks so much for agreeing to write for this blog RT. This post will be submitted to Darren's month long project for building a better blog].

It surprises me to read items on social networks where it’s obvious the writers don’t know what “links”, “backlinks”, “pingbacks” and “trackbacks” are. I can understand it coming from non-website owners, but from people who write on blogs everyday? While researching this topic, the only thing I could come up with is that the information surrounding these terms just isn’t publicized enough. We need to change that. I’ll help with the change by explaining what they are and the “how and why” of increasing the ones that count. Below is an example of what linking and interlinking amongst various sites will look like.

Links, also called hyperlinks, are links to other blogs. Simple enough, right? Generally, links refer only to outbound links. Links from your blog to another. There’s another term for inbound links, which are different from outbound links. Links can produce pingbacks if they’re used properly.

Backlinks refer to inbound links. Some writers call them “linkbacks” but that’s incorrect. The search engines call them backlinks and so should we. If a backlink comes from another blog, chances are it will have pinged your blog. If the ping pointed to a specific article, your blog will normally have produced a pingback in the comment section.

A pingback is probably the most confusing term of all. When you post an article and there’s even one link in that article, the software will ping that link (provided you have your software properly set up). If that link happens to point to a specific page on a blog, and the blog is set up to accept pings (some aren’t), a pingback will appear in the comments section of that blog. If the link doesn’t point to a specific page, no pingback can occur. You can still see if the ping went through to the blog by looking at the “blog reactions” on Technorati. If you want to track this information for your own blog, I suggest you to become a member of Technorati and claim your blog there, if you haven’t already done so.

A trackback is almost the same as a pingback. The difference is that your blog doesn’t have to link to the other blog in the article itself. There’s usually a separate spot in the software designed specifically for sending pings to trackback URLs. If the ping goes to a specific page on the other blog, a trackback will appear in the comments section of that block.

The WordPress blog software is set up to do all these things the right way, in its default configuration. Other software and hosted blog services may not be set up properly and will require customization steps. Andy Beard has some excellent articles on how to send a trackback with Blogger.

I notice a lot of blog writers are hesitant about including links in their articles. The contrary should be true. You can’t increase pingbacks without linking out to other blogs. When you link out to other blogs, whether the links produce pingbacks or not, it gets the attention of the owners of the other blogs (and their readers if there happens to be a pingback there). The owners and the readers will sometimes pay a visit to your blog. In my experience, they visit more often than not, just to see what you’re up to. Do not use trackbacks if you can help it. While they can do some good for your blog, they do nothing for the blogs you send them to.

In case you haven’t heard of it, there is a growing movement on the Internet that includes bloggers who want to give credit to other blogs via the comments section of their blogs. They have installed special plugins to remove the “rel=nofollow” tag from comment author URLs, pingbacks and trackbacks. Once again, Andy Beard wrote a great article on the dofollow movement.

This is why linking to other blogs is important. If you link to an article (also called deep linking) on a blog that has the nofollow tag disabled, the pingback becomes a backlinks for you! Now, I’m not saying that you should target only those blogs. You should target any blog where the link is relevant to your article. However, you can create “speed link” articles to make all the links in those articles relevant. Take a look at one of my infamous blog drive-bys for an example of how it can be done. As a matter of fact, this article will produce three pingbacks as backlinks!

The purpose behind all of the terms I just went over is to increase traffic. Linking produces traffic. Linking produces backlinks and that’s how our blogs are found by non-bloggers (and even some bloggers). Linking is important!

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

So, Yesterday I was told by Simmone of All Tips and Tricks about the Group Project: Sources of Inspiration by Vivien and I have been trying very hard to find some quiet time with my laptop to be able to jot down my thoughts.

Vivien asks:

What do you turn to when you feel mundane? How do you lift your spirits when the work stresses you out? How do you get inspired when you feel passionless? What motivates you to strive for perfection?

Well, although generally I possess a pretty easy going and content disposition, I am not inspired a lot off late.. As a matter of fact, when recently I started thinking about blogging, I started a blog called tyropearl.blogspot.com and the title I gave it at the moment was ‘unmotivated and uninspired’ :=) What a coincidence you say now that in a month of starting this blog, I get to write about inspiration? I don’t’ believe there are any coincidences in this world… and ‘everything happens for a reason’ as they say. And seems like this was exactly why I was given the courage to participate in Darren’s project, to find Simmone’s blog and end up at Vivien’s to write about inspiration.

Oh, that site? At the time I started it, John Chow was running his ‘review me’ posts and he had said he will link to anyone who reviews his site :).
My first ever exposure to such a phenomenon and I jumped right into it, wrote about him – only to get lost in the vast ocean of blogs. And I got bored, didn’t want to continue.

I have been more of a reader of all the nice blogs for last few years but always wanted to be able to contribute more than just comments. The desire of ‘belonging’ to the community of writers continued to bug me .. and I started Interesting Observations. Although, I was feeling I didn’t have an audience and as if I was writing in a vacuum, I stayed because I have a thirst for learning new things from more knowledgeable people, share perspectives and grow. My attempt is to write about anything I find interesting, may it be a news article, or a gadget I am intrigued about or just my opinions on some issue I might be brewing about. I do love intelligent interactions and seems like this is the start to an enjoyable journey.

So, needless to say, I often draw inspiration from reading other people’s blogs about how they have achieved success or what they are doing to achieve it.

I often find it fascinating to watch and read about kids and families with special needs trying to cope with daily life and beating the odds.

In the top-5 post for problogger, I had posted a few videos and a couple of them were funny but there was one video of a lady without arms. The video shows how this woman has conquered her disability and is doing everything that any normal person would do – except that she does everything with her legs.. When I watched it, I knew I didn’t have anything to complain about.

Good music always lifts my spirits up. Playing a nice dance number in my car always changes my mood and brings smiles. This technique often helps as a short time solution and as soon as I am out of that stressful ‘low’, I am able to focus on the real issue.

I read the poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling in 11th grade [eons ago] and the words have stayed with me forever. The poem has been my all time favorite for getting back on track. The poem says it all.

Here is the poem.

IF

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

This post is submitted for InspirationBit’s Group Writing Project – Sources of Inspiration.

photo credit

Sources of Inspiration 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 HUGE list for Darren to go through… hope he has someone to help him with it…
It was my very first exposure to such a project in the blogosphere and surely was a lot of fun to watch and read and see the enthusiasm of all the people involved.. Darren sure has proven once again he is a true leader… motivating and organizing such a huge group of people in such a disciplined manner. congratulations to him and all the participants..

Now I really need to first read Rajaram’s Top 5 things to do with all the Top 5 Lists

• Top 5 Ways To Plan an Easy Move by Single Ma
• Top 5 Italian Words You Really Don’t Want to Mispronounce by Sognatrice
• Top 5 technology websites by Jaganath S R
• Top 5 Things To Do Online Before Your Trip by Maria Paz Luque
• Top 5 Reasons Bill Gates Can’t Get No Respect by Great White Snark
• My top 5 single sentence movie reviews by blaiq
• Top 5 Ways Humanity Will Use Blogging to Evolve Our Species by Jesse S. Somer
• Top 5 Birthday Cards Design from Pigeon Card by Pigeon Card
• Top 5 livros essenciais by Ibrahim Cesar
• 5 Lessons Learned From Pitching VCs by Benjamin Yoskovitz
• Top 5 Things To Do in Istanbul by Mert Erkal
• Top Five Uses For Magnetic Bracelets by Forest Mitchell
• My Top 5 Most Important Comics by Lew Newmark
• Songs That Make Me Insanely Happy – The Top 5 by Jester
• My Top 5 Wordpress Plugin Ideas by Tech Lemming
• O Top 5 dos… Top 5! by Rafa
• Top 5 Hollywood actors of the last 30 years by Biby Cletus
• Avoiding the Chemical Sandwich of Doom…Plus 4 More Tips from The Practical Archivist by Sally Jacobs
• The 5 things that Helped me Finish the Ironman by Triathlete Dad
• 5 Benefits Podcasting has helped my business by The Freq
• I Fly Free & Get Paid To Have Sex by Jeffrey Strain
• Turn Your Meager Blog Income into a Million Dollars by Chris B.
• Top 5 Blogs by Musicians by Emma
• 5 reasons why Hollywood should spend less money on their movies by Patrick Rijnders
• Top Five Acne Treatments by Maggie and Will
• 5 Easy Daily Habits To Put Your Weight Loss On Autopilot by Time To Get Fit
• Top 5 Most Wanted Answer in Physics by LaymanSc
• Alguns títulos longos by Alexandre
• Top 5 Ways To Get Your Baby To Fall Asleep by Moxie (of Ask Moxie)
• How I look at life now that I am half a century old by Christina Kong
• 5 Sympathies For The Devil by msierra
• 5 Great Sites for Landscaping How To Videos by Paul Sayer
• Five things to remember when you adopt an older child. by Joanne
• The Top 5 List of Top 5 Lists on Blogging by Cristian
• Men’s Deodorant is Better Than Women’s … Top Five by Toonses
• Top 5 Ways that Real Estate Can Help You Become a Millionaire by Saving for Wealth
• Top 5 Ways To Always Have a Job by Justin Driscoll
• Top 5 Ways to Find What Makes You Happy by Shannon Turlington
• Five things that I love about camping by Steve
• No sex yet? You still should sleep together! by Angel Cupid
• Five (Free!) resources for the burgeoning art student by Max Lawson
• Five Ways to Make Money Scrapbooking by Todd
• Top Five Little Known Wordpress Plugins by Pallab De
• Top 5 Reasons to Participate in Probloggers Group Writing Projects by Lynn Terry
• 5 Reasons Why Stand-Up Comics Make Better Copywriters by Roberta Rosenberg
• Top 5 Reasons Why I Started a Personal Finance Blog by Dy Phan
• Five Steps to Start Working From Home by Char Polanosky
• Top 5 Reasons I Should Be Have My “Grown Up” Card Revoked For Being a Moron by zoot
• Top Five Values that You Can Learn from Wine Corks by Buda Baby
• Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Grilling by Grill Maestro
• FIVE EASY WAYS TO SPICE UP YOUR HOME DÉCOR WITH FABRIC…GET TO A FABRIC STORE NOW! by J&O Fabrics
• Top 5 Latest New Jersey Controversies by Deb/Jersey Girl
• Top 5 Video Games that should be turned into movies by betshopboy
• Top 5 Reasons You Should Stop Calling Yourself a Writer, Right Now by Jeff
• The Top 5 Things That Will Check Your Pre-Wedding Bliss by Never teh Bride
• 5 truly talented artists you’ve never heard of. by Conscious
• Top 5 places to eat gluten free by Lucy
• Top 5 US President Bankruptcies by Ian
• Do It All and Still Stay Sane by Kathryn Lang
• Top Five Reasons I Look Great on a Gluten Free Diet by Natalie
• Five strangely named websites that made it big by Dhruv Kumar
• Save money on the Top 5 Most expensive things in your life by Marshall Middle
• Top 5 Super Foods by Melanie Thomassian
• Top 5 Reasons to get outta bed in the morning. by rel
• Top Five Ways to Turbo Boost you Mac for Free by Kenny Roberts
• Top 5 Reasons To Start A Business by Jason Drohn
• Five essential skills for blogging success by Shonnie Lavender
• Five Killer Apps That Keep Me Using Kubuntu by Chris Rohde
• Top 5 Reasons Why Wives Love Radio Control Airplanes by The Hobby Guy
• Top 5 Signs You’ve Graduated to the Copywriting Big Leagues by Dina Giolitto
• Five People for Your Success by Milo
• Top 5 reasons getting a fire-fighter by Wolfgang Maslo
• Top Five Bible Verses On Money And Stewardship by Savvy Steward
• Top 5 reasons you should not listen to finance professionals by Nordicmoney
• Top 5 Internet Marketing Mistakes by The Internet Marketing Monitor
• Top 5 Free Ways to Promote Your Writing Business by Yvonne Russell
• top 5 things my pantry needs to have by Loretta
• CelebrityCatch & 5 Hottest Celebrities by Cindy
• Top 5 Worst Jobs I Have Ever Had by Angela
• Big Fat Deal’s Top 5 Size-Positive Songs for Girls Who Rock Their Curves by Weetabix
• TOP 5 – People I respect in this World by Philip Yong
• The Top 5 Google Tools I Use Every Day by Hugh Hollowell
• Top 5 Reasons to Visit and Subscribe to ecocheap by Char
• Top 5 reasons why it’s bad to be a good listener by Jude
• Five Things Pediatricians Do That Drive Me Crazy by Terri Mauro
• The Top 5 FREE Software Programs Every Writer Should Have by Rob in Denver
• 5 top reasons to market your business on the Internet by Andrew Timberlake
• Top 5 worst things about blogosphere by Pavel
• Want To Make Real Change? Stop Making These 5 Mistakes by Melissa LaRose
• Top 5 Things to Do With an Idea by Andrew G.R.
• Top 5 Reasons Writers Should Procrastinate by Alicia Sparks
• Top 5 Reasons You Should NOT Make Money Online by Ryan Ambrose
• A world fit to be conquered: Five steps to total real estate listing dominance by Greg Swann
• Top 5 Money Making blogs I Envy by Ramanujam
• Top 5 Favorite Disc Golf Courses by Jeff Sill
• Top 5 Things That Hurt Your Online Advertising by Chris Cagle
• The Top 5 Websites that are Changing Aging by Eric Schubert
• Why build a boat… blog? by Bruce C. Dillahunty
• Top Five Misconceptions of Puerto Rico by BW
• Cman’s Top 5 Tips for Building a Profitable Blog by Johnathan Long
• The secret is out! The top five things guys really want by Bruce Mulkey
• Top 5 Newsletter Design Tips by Martin Reed
• Top Five Methods to Check How Physically Fit You Are. by Harikrishnan
• Top 5 Tips for the Potential Pushy Parent by John Parsons
• Top 5 things I look for in a blog by Bengt Wendel
• Photoshop Lightroom: Top 5 Features & Tips by Ryan R Dlugosz
• My Top 5 Favorite Flowers by Lynda Walldez
• Top 5 Herbs in my Herb Garden by James
• Top 5 Tools to Build an Online Community by Joseph
• Top 5 tips for getting backlinks to your websites by vijay
• Top 5 Tips For Better Photographs by Joe Szymanski
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Link: top-5-group-writing-project

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ProBlogger’s Top 5 Writing Project entries amounted to a total of 893!!! 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.

okay so its overwhelming to read ALL the entries for top 5 writing project for Darren’s group writing contest after working 9-5 job on top of taking care of the ones that look to you for feeding them something! but I have been reading some, commented on few others, and still no one commented back on my newly born!

okay fine, its not typically a writing entry but then it was ‘top 5′ something!! and as Darren said you could take it in any direction – i literally did :=) I see ’some’ people came by and left without saying a damn hi – does it cost you to say a polite hi? so I am a bit depressed for more than 48 hrs now, despite my failing attempt to make people smile!

anyways, I will move forward on this lonely little journey but before that i am listing some of the entries that i found funny, informative and interesting… Of course, i haven’t gotten to all of the top-5 which I will continue to read.. some very creative people out there

out of day 3 submissions – the very first entry that caught my attention was Top 5 Reasons This Writing Contest Is Stupid.

needless to say his title is catchy and the writer uses the human herd psychology here so accurately – he tells us what so many people are doing is stupid and all of us turn to see what he has to say! very intelligent

and if you look in his archives on the same page, he entered into another writing contest where he titled it “I Love Blog Contests” which he wrote for emoms at home emomsathome and he didn’t receive a single comment on that entry!! What’s with that? Does it pay to be bad and call people stupid? I should have known!!

Anyways, I think the following entries from day 1 were really nice and Simmone’s entry really made us laugh.. how perceptive of him.. finding pleasure in small things :=)

My 5 fingers ranked by Simonne

Top 5 Tips to be the next Darren Rowse

The Top 5 Blogs at the End of 2007 will be…

The Top 5 Reasons to Join a Blog Network

The Top 5 Web Sites for a Deserted Island

Group Writing Project, Problogger – My Top Favs so Far 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 the next few days, all of us are going to have a ton of reading to do and when you are ready to take a break, come over to my blog and see these videos for smiles!

The song playing right now on my pc as I submit this post for Darren’s Group Writing Project..

Take life lightly

Get Inspired

Spread Happiness

And stay happy wherever you are…:=) (Where the hell is Matt)

Mencia in 7-11 Store

TOP 5 videos to take the edge off of a long 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.

Darren – the problogger – has finally announced the topic for the Group Writing Project he is running this week for a prize of $1001.

He has posted the guidelines to enter the contest and also a form to use for submitting your entries in order to be considered.

This project is sure to take the blogosphere by a storm because of Darren’s esteemed reputation amongst top notch bloggers. He posts articles, strategies on SEO tips, AdSense Tips and News, Blogging for Beginners and also posts how blogs make money online! He has even posted at times the amount of money he has made from his blog(s) along with lessons he has learnt. We have a whole lot to learn from him on this business.

I am very excited about this project not because of the prize money (although it is a huge sum just for writing an article) but because it is the easiest way to practice my writing and although a newbie at blogging, I still will be able to participate and get the experienced bloggers to make a few comments of advice or guidance on the direction I could take in building this blog (would anyone really?) .

The deadline for submissions is Thursday May 10 so its time to put on your thinking caps and start jotting down all that comes to mind. The theme according to Darren could take any direction: like “a personal blogger could write about their top 5 favorite foods, a celebrity blogger could write about the top 5 things Paris will do when she gets to jail, a tech blogger could rate their top five gadgets of the year, a productivity blogger could write their top 5 ways to save 20 minutes a day etc.” Now that is a fairly long leash :) and I am sure he has his work cut out to pick the best.

It’ll be interesting to read so many people writing about so many different things. He is also suggesting that each week bloggers should (could) also post the top 5 best blogposts of their own choosing .. that will be fun.

TOP 5 – GROUP WRITING PROJECT 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.