I have a friend who joking says, ‘I don’t care if I sound good, but do I look good?’ So I’m asking you, does your blog look good?

I know I look good in my street clothes. I have nice clothes, and I even have what some would call –fashionable clothes. I’m sure you ladies out there just exploded. I have what most men would call casual wear too. I look good in it all. However, I don’t look good in spandex or hammer pants. You know why? Outside of the fact they’re grossly out of style, they make me look awkward. I wear both what’s in style and what looks good on me.

So What?
I’m getting there. You should care what your blog looks like in many different browsers. Why? Well, because you likely have many different types of visitors. You’ll have those who love IE, those who smother their lips all over Firefox, and even those who read from the Opera (what?). Your blog should look good in all those browsers. No one likes a blog in spandex or hammer pants. It just ruins your brand and the likelihood of getting subscribers.

Mobile Devices
I have been a little late to the game on cellular web browsing. I admit I don’t own an iPhone. I’m not that obsessed with the Internet (Ok, I am, but I’m attached to Verizon). I do own an Amazon Kindle, though. And my Kindle surfs the web quite nicely via Sprint’s EVDO network. The best part about that? It’s free! I don’t pay a dime to surf online while scooting along at 70 mph on the interstate.

So that’s exactly what I did this past weekend. I took a road trip to Michigan, along the way I bounced from site to site. It was a good way to pass the four hour travel time. I only looked at blogs that held my attention, and that had easy to access archives. While the Kindle moved quickly amongst pages, the typing interface and hyperlink clicking became a little cumbersome. I noticed a few things along the way and thought I would share them with you.

A Blog’s Mobile Appearance
The shades of grey don’t do justice to my logo, but other elements stood out from more popular blogs. The header of my site doesn’t contain a lot of spam. Some sites, like John Cow.com have several Kindle pages worth of affiliate links, ads, and fat to flip through before finding meat. Bloggers should be aware that large headers can dispell mobile readers, but who cares?

Well, you should care. Mobile technology seems to be taking shape quite nicely. With a strong push by Google to bring wifi nationwide, we might see an explosion of internet browsing devices that fit in our hands. We should at least know how our site gets viewed in various mobile browsers. On my trip northward, I tried to read ProBlogger.net without any success. I received a 404 error. I think it had something to do with their caching system. So it pays to know whether your site delivers in mobile format.

How to Tell if Your Blog Looks Fat
I’ve known for a while about browsershots.org, which gives users a view of their site from many different browsers. We’re talking about in the fifty range, people. That’s a lot of testing on standard browsers.

I’m not an expert at mobile browsers, but this guy seems to know a thing or two about the iPhone and CSS, so I would ask him how to take down your site’s lovehandles. .

Can you emulate the mobile platform? You can find various emulators to see how your blog looks to the on-the-go user. Let’s take a look at a few.

Palm OS emulator [view site]
From what I read, this site only requires you to create a login, then you can download their emulator for free to your desktop. Use at your own risk, though. I don’t know anything other than what I’ve read.

iPhoney [view site]
Mac users rejoice! The only iPhone browser emulator I could find comes strictly for macintosh systems. I did find a site that offered online screenshots of your site, but they charge five euros, and with the current dollar exchange rate I’m pretty sure I would be broke if I paid that amount. There’s some requirements for using the iPhoney, outside of having to own a Mac, like having OS X on there. Just go check it out if you’re interested. It’s open source, so you can’t go wrong with the price.

.NET Solutions [view site]
Microsoft uses the mobile OS, which runs on .NET frameworks. If you know enough about that kind of thing, then you can look at this guy’s list to see how to emulate certain types of phones.

If you learned one thing from this post…don’t let your friend’s blog wear spandex. No one should be caught dead in that get-up.

UPDATE: While I was surfing this afternoon, I found a wildly good plugin for those wanting to optimize their sites for the iPhone. It’s a plugin from Content Robot. Check it out.

If you know of any good mobile browser emulators, just drop a comment and I’ll update this post.

Can you remember when you first saw a good brand online? In the past few months, I’ve seen a turnip, a droopy eyed character, and a suave, dark haired boy. That suave, dark haired boy was none other than Mr. Javo. I think I first ran across Mr. Javo through Entrecard. I noticed his business card and was intrigued. I visited his site and after only a few minutes, decided to subscribe.

The design of Mr Javo dot com certainly helped make that decision to subscribe to his RSS feed. I’m often times surprised by how casually we overlook the theme of our site. The Mr Javo dot com site exudes the kind of professionalism a make money blogger should display. The logo and brand work well. The clean and crisp typography of the site works. The layout of the theme works. You can easily find out more about Mr. Javo and his mission by flipping through the various pages of his site. For money making blogs, he keeps his content to the right topics.

Mr Javo dot com caters to bloggers trying to make money online. He has ‘Young Internet Marketing’ as his tagline. According to his about page, Javier is a young marketer from Venezuela. He started his blog to help other bloggers make money.

Mr. Javo dot Com is a authentic blog with online marketing information. I make money online and I help to other bloggers to explode their potential, because like me, you can earn money online with your blog.

You know I love anyone who claims to explode others’ potential.

What Can You Expect from Mr Javo dot com

I’ve been an RSS subscriber to Mr Javo dot com for at least three weeks. While I haven’t seen every post of his, the ones I have read detail good practices for bloggers to monetize their blog and to get the word out about their blog. He does writes reviews, tutorials on increasing your blog traffic, web design, and sometimes writes about Wordpress.

If you are like me, then you plug your blog in multiple arenas online. It seems every new site I find, Mr Javo has already been a member and networked with bloggers there. I admire his persistence and dedication. So if you haven’t checked out Mr Javo dot com, why wait?

Do you know of a site, service, blogging tool, widget, plugin, or advertising opportunity that has gunpowder spilling from its barrel? Write us a quick message to let us light the fuse.

Where in the blogosphere did you hear that idea? Oh, on every other blog?

Once when I was leapfrogging from blog to blog, I saw a pattern. 

The first time I read a post on using Adsense to make money I stopped, skimmed, then moved on to the next topic. A few blogs later and I find a post discussing Adsense using similar language, similar examples, and similar conclusions. All in all it was very, well, similar.

How then can we create something new? Over at Scribbles and Words, Jay delved into the topic with a post where he asked if your blog has a voice. He talks about the universal truth of there being no new ideas, only voices. After all, we cannot siphon water from an empty bucket.

Does our interpretation of the world indeed create our foothold in the blogosphere?

Spinning with Politicians

The recent caucuses and election hubbub has caused me to hear a lot of political rhetoric. This discourse usually begins sounding sweet, and then ends sounding similar. It’s similar to other candidates, previous candidates, other elected officials, until it becomes Hollywood — scripted.

Each presidential candidate tends to communicate better than the average American. They can spin issues in their favor, masking their failures in logic and past performance, or illustrating a point with vivid language or boisterous remarks. We follow each candidate to see where they stand, over by the workers or in the high rise away from view. But what we know of them we hear them tell us and divulge from popular media.

We follow blogs because they carry us with their words. We buy into their information, lessons, tutorials, voices, and want to learn from them. When we go out on our own to blog, we carry with us the lessons we learned from our online tutors.

How to Sound Dissimilar

A blogger may write posts that sound similar to other blogs. How could this happen? Well, we live in an intellectually cramped world. I realized this when I thought up great names for domains, only to realize, after a quick search, someone else already thought of celebritney.com or callaflower.com. How could I have known? I thought I was being original.

I often hear bloggers suggest we read popular blogs to gain inspiration. This doesn’t mean we copy content, but we see how successful bloggers put words to page and cycle through traffic like an inner city freeway. That’s the stuff of sheer joy, right? We all want to be successful. We all want traffic. But without good content, we will be stuck behind a big rig, honking in frustration.

If You Build It…

We build originality from what we know. Originality can be viewed as standing on the shoulders of the work others have done, but we are not standing on just on one shoulder - but on many. When we write about organizing our lives, and we also know a little bit about zen, then we create a blog about finding peace in modern society. When we love humor and also making money, we can build a blog out of our knowledge and humor. You get the idea. These people did not invent writing about organizing our life and soul or satirizing the successful for our own gain, but they do it well with everything they know.

I feel like my own blog comes from my experiences, the writings I’ve done as a freelancer, the blogs I read regularly, and the information pouring in through every crevice of my life.  It’s all come together in one climactic boom. I’m here spreading it to all of you. I’m sure you’ll pick up something you like, think about it, and use it in your writings, blog, or work. It’s how this originality thing works.

An original idea is like a multi-colored Playdough man, stretching his arms to the sky.

Want to see more writing tips, blog marketing ideas, and content like this? Subscribe to the Jason Boom dot com RSS feed for free today!

For a long time now, I’ve held one tenet to be true - do one thing a day you otherwise wouldn’t like to do and success will come of it. This doesn’t mean I do something that collides with my ethics or morals. It simply means I do some grunt work, push an idea through the grueling phases, like register for affiliate programs, and other things that take me one step closer to my goals. Why not, right?

We sometimes call upon spiritual guides to bring us nuggets of wisdom. Let the Boom tell you there’s no procrastination bomb shelter. We need to be on top of our game to succeed. We can look for inspiration outside ourselves, but motivation comes from within and explodes outward. A lot of times I motivate myself by asking ‘why not’ followed by some activity. So here are 100 different why not ideas to light your fuse today.

1. Why not write an extra blog post today?
2. Why not sign up for an affiliate program?
3. Why not comment on a blog in your niche today?
4. Why not read blogs outside your niche today?
5. Why not drop 300 Entrecards today?
6. Why not submit a guest post to a popular blog?
7. Why not enter a blog contest to up my exposure?
8. Why not create a blog posting schedule?
9. Why not read an ebook on Affiliate Marketing?
10. Why not take some time to brush up on SEO skills?
11. Why not learn how to Freelance like a Rockstar?
12. Why not digg an article?
13. Why not do something for someone else?
14. Why not thank your blog readers?
15. Why not cleanup your blog categories?
16. Why not backup your blog today?
17. Why not learn a little about writing headlines?
18. Why not experience a new blog submission network today?
19. Why not send a friendly email to a fellow blogger today?
20. Why not read through the backlog of feed subscriptions in your reader of choice?
21. Why not learn to make money online?
22. Why not drive traffic to your blog by writing a controversial post?
23. Why not write a recommendation for a blog you love?
24. Why not update your site’s stylesheet?
25. Why not consider your brand?
26. Why not check your site traffic?
27. Why not submit your RSS feed to a few directories?
28. Why not hold a contest on your blog?
29. Why not contract a new logo design?
30. Why not sign up for twitter?
31. Why not follow someone cool on twitter?
32. Why not setup a profile for yourself to network your blog on a social network?
33. Why not create an avatar that brands your site?
34. Why not write an ebook chapter on what you know?
35. Why not update your site’s keywords and title tags?
36. Why not install a helpful plugin to your WordPress blog?
37. Why not write a constructive About page?
38. Why not create custom business cards for offline marketing your site?
39. Why not write keyword rich content for your site?
40. Why not submit your blog to dmoz.org for consideration?
41. Why not backup your WordPress blog to your local hard drive?
42. Why not find a cheaper webhost?
43. Why not explore other money making endeavors online?
44. Why not search for your blog in Google?
45. Why not try out new blog networks to increase your readership?
46. Why not give a shout out to a blogger who has helped you recently?
47. Why not buy some exposure on the Project Wonderland ad network?
48. Why not buy some ads from recent blogs on Entrecard?
49. Why not increase your backlink numbers by visiting Aboutus.org?
50. Why not buy a keyword on OneBuckWiki.com?
51. Why not stretch our imaginations by creating an innovative marketing campaign?
52. Why not offer a prize for the top commenters on our blog for a month?
53. Why not install the Do Follow plugin for our comments?
54. Why not shop for Entrecard items through their marketplace?
55. Why not add a widget to your sidebar?
56. Why not submit your site to all the search engines?
57. Why not plan a blog attack for the next year?
58. Why not try to build a huge readership?
59. Why not follow everyone on Twitter who follows you?
60. Why not setup your comments as a contact form?
61. Why not remove non-used categories?
62. Why not learn about your blog post’s secret life after publishing?
63. Why not create a budget for your blog?
64. Why not monetize your blog in a new way?
65. Why not research new browser toolbars?
66. Why not come up with a new series of blog posts?
67. Why not encourage your readers to leave you feedback?
68. Why not strip your blog of useless badges?
69. Why not buy a notebook to write down blog post ideas for when you’re on the go?
70. Why not tell someone in the offline world about blogging?
71. Why not teach someone the basics of your chosen profession?
72. Why not write a blog post that will help others?
73. Why not write a blog post that reveals a little something about you personally?
74. Why not administer a poll to find out what direction readers would like to see the blog head?
75. Why not stumble other sites, creating positive karma your own site will get stumbled?
76. Why not sign up for Sphinn?
77. Why not create a contest for your blogging friends to all emphasize on their blogs?
78. Why not join a community on MyBlogLog?
79. Why not create a MyBlogLog account?
80. Why not boost your understanding of grammar rules?
81. Why not cement an understanding of common internet phrases?
82. Why not pump up your blog traffic by being Dugg?
83. Why not try your hand at Entrecard slots?
84. Why not do some exercise while blogging?
85. Why not come up with a memorable tagline for your blog?
86. Why not sift through your own archives to rejuvenate your blog purpose?
87. Why not seek out advice on your blog’s post quality?
88. Why not try a new meme you haven’t seen on any other blogs?
89. Why not check old posts for misspelled words?
90. Why not create a custom 404 page?
91. Why not submit a sitemap to Google, Yahoo, and MSN?
92. Why not suggest your blog for inclusion in a blog review site?
93. Why not buy a banner ad on a popular blog, if you can afford the space?
94. Why not add helpful information to your sidebar?
95. Why not add a line to your template so readers are reminded to subscribe to your blog?
96. Why not give a compliment to a new blogger?
97. Why not write about the services your enjoy using for free online?
98. Why not learn new ways to increase RSS subscriptions to your blog?
99. Why not seek advice from an old school blogger?
100. Why not write a list of 100 things to inspire others?

 What’s so super about this upcoming game? The Patriots are undefeated and, frankly, I would be astonished if it was much of a game. I’m trying to think of a way to tie in the perfection bid by the Patriots to blogging, but I’m coming up blank. I suppose it could represent each of our desires to do something truly spectacular, write a perfect post that gets stumbled, dugg, sphunn, etc — the ultimate traffic spike.This week has not been as eventful as the previous week. I did accomplish a few things with my other online endeavors.

1. I was linked to from the JohnCow.com site via Joe Tech’s guest post.
2. Jeff from BuzzmyBlog.com belted out one heck of a guest post in my absence. 
3. I am part of the blog consortium giving each of you a chance to win a $100 this month. 
4. I joined a new traffic generating site this week and will have details on the results in a post soon.

Traffic Review
This past week I have found my visitors have maintained at an average of 135 unique hits a day. The site receives a lot of direct traffic, which means many of you remember the name Jason Boom dot com. After only three weeks, I think that’s excellent. I’m excited to see how well things go within six months time or even a year from now.

I have been using Google Analytics exclusively, while continuing to monitor my FeedBurner account for new subscribers. I’m happy to report that my RSS subscriber numbers, while maintaining a steady minor increase, has increased to forty-one as of today.

If any of my readers have comments for me, I encourage you to write me via the contact form or by leaving a comment in this post. I’m accessible to you all.

We Have Winners!
I hope, inside, all of you feel like winners. Because there will only be three in this week’s contest. Just like last week, I entered everyone’s entries into an excel spreadsheet then drew random numbers from random.org.  There are three separate prizes and three separate winners.

30 day Blog link on the sidebar goes to…

Awyren from http://www.wayfarerwings.com/

30 day 125×125 ad goes to…

Syed from http://gamingx.x10hosting.com/blog

Powder Keg Review goes to…

Mr. Javo from http://www.mrjavo.com

Quick Note
I’ll be stopping the weekly contests for the time being, but everyone can join in on the $100 contest this month. I’ll see about starting it back up in March. Stay tuned for that.

Upcoming Explosions
The biggest thing coming will be about 100 items to motivate you to get out there blogging, networking, and doing the grunt work of being a blogger. This post of passion has taken a while to create so please keep an eye out for that. I also have a Powder Keg Review coming this week, and some more networking to do. I’d be interested in hearing what you all think of my posts. What do you like? What would like to see more of and less of on this site?

February Goals
This month will be the first full month of Jason Boom dot com. I started on January 12^th and have had so much success exploding on the internet so far.  I’d like to thank each of you for giving me a chance to blow the bunker with content on marketing, writing, and general blogging tips.

I love this. I live for this.

• Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
• Increase my page views and time spent on site. I want a sticky site.
• Network with other bloggers.
• Join in discussions on the Bloggeries.com forum more often.
• Guest post at least once.
• Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
• Raise exposure through Entrecard.

That about does it. I’m not going for perfection like the Patriots. However, I do believe this blog stands a damn good chance of succeeding throughout this year. I’m dedicated to it. Stick around for the explosion through February. Oh, and don’t forget to try your hand at winning $100. That’s free money.