I’m lying here sick today. It’s nothing major, just a cold mixed with a sore throat. To pass the time, I’ve been browsing blogs. I ran into one earlier that I thought was frightening, but I had taken medication for my cold so I might have been hallucinating.

The blog didn’t have long teeth or dark, deep-seeded eyes. Actually the blog looked normal as normal could be. It had two columns, a white background, a header image of flowers (or was it grass?), and numerous posts.

Now before I get to the blog’s posts, I just want to state that I had never commented, dropped Entrecards or anything on this blog. It was like it just surfaced out of thin air, like that ghost in a movie about ghosts (but not the one with Patrick Swayze).

So here I am, listening to the news on TV, trying to make my headache disappear by reading some popular blogs. I surfed a few, commented on a tax entry, jumped over to read about a crazy stunt, and then I landed on this blog with the nondescript pages and the inviting header. It doesn’t seem scary, right? It’s just a normal blog.

I know what you’re wondering. What kind of blog was it? Was it a Make Money Online blog? Was it a personal diary? An affiliate site? Maybe it was a scantily clad female’s blog recounting her nights out at the club. Or was it a police officer’s blog where he talked in code about the arrests he made. Maybe it was an anonymous blog — a white page with black lettering, and someone posting about love, death, pain, or misery. Maybe it was one of those.

It’s message was fuzzy.

I heard the music startup as soon as the page loaded. But I’m hallucinating, right? No one would want to play music on a blog. Maybe I’m living in 1997. Had I somehow slipped through a wormhole? I’d heard strange stories of Robitussin, but never anything quite this bad. I closed my eyes and listened to the tune for a moment, realizing I had to be in 2008. The sounds were too urban, not 90s enough.

But what could this person be hoping to gain with music auto-playing on their web page? Did they feel it would lull their visitors into a state of suspense, waiting to hear how the notes petered out? Would they turn off their music planning to listen to the notes of this site? Why not, right?

The music started to pick up its pace — a frightening staccato sound, like Psycho times two. I’m fairly certain voices could be heard through the drum beats. I checked the address. It wasn’t Myspace. For a split second longer, I hung there with the sidebar widgets still loading. I knew what I had to do.

Ctrl + W!

Listen to Episode 2 of the Boombox Podcast

This podcast was recorded last Friday, so some references may seem a little dated. I do seem to ramble quite a bit in it, but whatever, I had fun. There’s also something fun going on in this one. You’ll have to listen all the way through to get the benefit of it, but it should be worth it to many of you.

Topics discussed:

1. Two Slate articles that talk about different fraudulent enterprises.
2. What happens when a blog dies?
3. And organizing our blog schedules.

This week has showed me the power of social media sites like StumbleUpon. Sure I knew my site could receive tremendous exposure through stumbling, but I didn’t realize how quickly it could happen, and just how quickly it could dissipate. My recent article Ten Reasons to Write Well Not Good received a lot of exposure on StumbleUpon in a short amount of time. It was like one of those summer rains — soaking the site, then soon the sun was back out drying up the traffic.

I’m not complaining about StumbleUpon traffic. I received quality stats during that flash flood. My bouncerate was extremely low. I’m happy with the overall effect. I want to know how to sustain it. Does StumbleUpon traffic stop by a thumbs down? Does anyone have an article?

Happenings this Week

This week I wrote the previously mentioned article, which received the most hits of the week. I also wrote the two part series on How to Podcast with Audacity and Wordpress. I tried to name this article with a more SEO friendly title to see if it brought more organic traffic. So far its brought three visitors, who stayed over ten minutes a piece on the site. I’d say it pays to target your titles with specific keywords.

New Milestone! I’m not a RSS jockey, but I’ve been riding a fairly strong horse upward these past few weeks. I’ve surpassed 70 subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed, now’s your chance. It’s free.

Site Tweaks: I did add an ad above the Spottt widget. I think this ad relates to what a lot of my surfers have interest — making money with their blog. It’s Darren Rowse’s Six Figure Blogging course. You might want to check it out.

I’ve also added a Digg This button to each individual post page, below the article itself. I hope this encourages everyone to Digg their favorite Jason Boom posts from the past and in the future.

Guest Post I have been writing a guest post for a neighboring blog. I’ll update everyone next week when I’ve finished that post. It’s taking longer than expected.

Upcoming Explosions

This week should see the second episode of the Boombox podcast early in the week. I’ll also be writing about site traffic, nurturing killer ideas, and another top ten list. I’ll have a Powder Keg review thrown in there too, for those who enjoy the series.

Other’s Explosions

I’m really enjoying Stephan Miller’s blog of the same name. He discusses his adventures in making money online, his blog, and other ideas for productivity. He has a clear, distinct voice that carries his articles along swiftly. His recent article entitled Spread Your Feed details some finer details of an RSS feed, which I hadn’t even considered. This is why I love his blog. It’s taking things I know, and showing me them from a different angle. Good work, Stephan.

Andrew Pavelski is back this week with a new successful blogging article. His look at John Chow seems like a natural step for this new series. I can’t wait to see what next week brings. Andrew also had extremely well thought out posts during this week. Everyone should be reading his blog.

I also enjoyed The Blog Entrepeneur’s posts this week. His writing has definitely made me want to elevate my own posting style. Just take a look at this rant on Make Money Online blogs or this one about developing blogs that stand apart from the masses.

We’re at it again, giving away a hundred dollars to one lucky person. How great is that? To gain entries into the contest, just do any of the following:

1. Make a comment of value (not just “i agree”, etc.) on a post = 1 entry (remember to comment on all blogs) 
2. Subscribe to RSS via email = 2 entries (per blog you subscribe to!) 
3. Write a post about the contest on your blog (must include a link to this page and the links below to participating blogs) = 25 entries

For those who have already signed up to RSS feeds via email, don’t worry–your email will be added every month (unless you unsubscribe).

If you write a blog post about the contest, please return to one of the host blog’s contest thread to leave a comment with a link to your post. This way we know we have it.

How much easier can we make it? So you can sneak in with just one entry by simply posting a comment here, you can increase your odds by reading and commenting on a few more posts here and at one of the blogs below and maybe subscribe to a couple, or you can really up the odds and subscribe to all all of our blogs (which you’ll enjoy reading anyway), comment on a bunch of posts, and blog about this contest. The more entries you earn, the better your odds, of course. If you’re going to post about this contest, just grab the image and code from here.

The deadline for this contest is 12:00 AM April 1, 2008.

Who wants to pay you?

- JoeTech.com

- Link Bait

- Gorilla Sushi

- CK Marketing

- The Big Bald Blog

- How 2 Blogger

- Jason Boom

- Mr Javo

1. Learn a valuable skill. In a world where Microsoft Word automatically capitalizes our lowercase i and changes glaring typos with a right click, quality writing skills have become a rarity. Use your newfound writing skills to market yourself to employers, show off exemplary articles on a blog, or just polish your Myspace profile. In the end, readers will appreciate your efforts. Also, money will rain down on you. Trust me.
2. Invalidate grammar Nazis. It’s not a quiet secret that those with writing prowess also tend to know their way around grammar rules. With grammar skills you can call out the grammar Nazis in the comment sections of your favorite blogs. You can uncloak them, revealing them to be the vulnerable, insecure critic you knew them to be.
3. Have advertisers pay you for a review. Do you own a blog? By writing well, you can earn serious loot by writing about services. We’re not talking about adult content, either. This is strictly on the up-and-up (whatever that means).
4. Guest post on a popular blog. A-List Bloggers have one thing in common — giant RSS subscription numbers. If you write well, you may receive an email requesting you write a post for them. Even the big guys network, right? Hey, it could happen!
5. Write scathing responses to popular posts. It should be no secret that certain blogs have their finger on the pulse of the media. Well, take your own finger and stop the blood from pumping. Push hard enough with the right content and you might see a traffic spike higher than what the “Leave Britney Alone” video produced.
6. Twitter with the best of them. You can’t spell Twitter without “wit”. Write witty tweets and you’re sure to gain followers, and eventually you’ll rule the blogosphere (twittosphere?).
7. Drive traffic to your site through SEO writing. Earn money from your superior use of words. Create pages of content to wow the search engines. Learn SEO tricks and become number one in Google SERP’s for phrases like “candy butter driveshaft”.
8. Write impressive recommendations and reviews. Most bloggers love to read reviews of their site. But if the review reads, “He’s got the l33t blog. I love the contents” it loses its appeal. Shine up your reviews until they glow. (As a rule, content refers to all posts in a blog — there is no need for an S on the end.)
9. Comment with authority. A well spoken comment will gain the respect of blog owners and other readers. Do it consistently on popular blogs and watch your RSS subscription numbers climb.
10. Write impressive top ten lists. A top ten list with misspellings just doesn’t bode well for your Late Night blogging style success. Learn to write well, not good, and Diggers, Sphinners, and other social media junkies will love you.