photo credit: James Jordan

I admit I hadn’t planned on writing out a goals list. I was browsing Twitter and @profitbaron said:

For your new years resolution: set a goal so big that if you actually achieve it, it would blow your mind

I tend to make my goals do-able. It’s not that I’m afraid of success, but I do have a healthy apprehension towards disappointment.

Goals should be tailored to better ones self, so I suppose I have some maintenance to do with myself. I’ve broken down for you all to see.

1. Update this blog at least once a week.
2. Read at least one book — fiction or otherwise — once a week.
3. Spend quality time with my family each week, doing something new and exciting.

Those are my three safe goals. They’re achievable but would require more dedication and focus than anything else. So to go with @profitbaron’s suggestion. I have a few more.

Big, damn goals.

1. Increase my freelance writing business to full time and fade away from the web design office. In other words, work from home.
2. Write to completion at least five short stories. Before you say that’s not very many, keep in mind I tend to write a short story very slowly, with many drafts.

In order to keep motivated, I’ve setup an account with JoesGoals.com. It’s a convenient way to keep track of progress, and to let you all know if I’ve kept my word.

So what goals did you set for yourself? I’ll update this post with links if to other goal oriented posts.

Goals for 2010 from Jason Boom dot com

Hello, I’m trying to figure out what to do with this site. I feel all warm and fuzzy when I come back to it. I love the design, character, and everything this site had become. So should I renew the domain? Absolutely!

I think I’ll just use the blog to talk about my interests. What are they, you ask. Well, here’s a list.

• Amazon Kindle/Ebooks
• Gaming
• Technology
• Web Development
• Writing
• Sports
• Marketing
• Parenting

And for those who have been wondering where I’ve been. Well, I have a seven month old daughter. She’s kept me rather busy for a while now.

What to Do What to Do from Jason Boom dot com

The fire has gone. The smoke from the smoldering mess wafts listlessly into the blogosphere. Something happened here. An attack maybe. A disaster of some sort. Many have questioned. Others have emailed their concern. One man cared to pay a little to help clean up the wreckage.

The site continued in this state for how long? Some new visitors smelled the smoke, and searched in the archives for the fire. They hung onto hope by subscribing to the RSS feed, hoping either to see rebirth from the ashes or never to be bothered again.

Meanwhile the earth continued revolving, endlessly spinning, shifting, changing. The writer, Jason Boom, felt the urge to grab a shovel and begin moving earth, but something kept him from it. His wife, at home, was pregnant. The freelance writing had taken hold. The web development projects trailed off into the night.

Then, a miracle happened. A light. Jason woke one day with energy to spend towards cleanup. There was a lot of work to be done. It’d been three months, since he’d visited the site, but he knew he could still pull something out of the ashes.

He began by upgrading Wordpress to the latest 2.7 version. The new digs helped brighten the back end of the site some, but what could be said for the content? Would people still care? Would they understand?

Jason noticed that feedburner still had subscriber numbers. How awesome! Survivors! They’re out there. So he pleaded with them.

“Forgive me! Content is king, but lately my content has been absent, off fighting the good fight in the real world. But now I’m back to clean up this mess and make the site no longer stink.”

“I’m back,” he whispered softly into the blogosphere.

Did they hear him?

What Happened Here? from Jason Boom dot com

It was several weeks ago. I came home from the office and made a quick stop at the mailbox. On the way through the front door, I noticed a nondescript white envelop amidst the bills and magazines. I looked it over and quickly realized the return address was from a website I had signed up with some time before. Although it was a mass mailing, I still felt valuable to them. I opened the letter and found no postcard, no note, but three different stickers. The took a look at the stickers and before the night was over I was back on that site, digging for reasons for the stickers and making myself part of their community.

I must confess this is a paid review for a label and sticker manufacturing business. I only took the review because I liked what they had to offer and felt it could maybe help one of my readers with a need either now or down the road. This review presents the idea of the business to you, as I have not purchased any stickers from the company at the point of writing this.

Stickers and labels offered from Frontier Label could be used to promote a startup or to improve packaging for any number of products. The company uses state of the art technology to reduce costs and to improve output of the stickers. They use digital printing to create the custom labels and stickers. The savings get passed on to you.

The Sticker Ordering Site

The Frontier Label site has a lot to offer the end-user. The site looks terrific and really lends the company credibility from the start. You can quickly see they types of stickers they’re offering from the home page. You can also go through the site to create a custom order for everything from coffee bag stickers to bumper stickers.

Once you select the quantity of your desired sticker, then you can begin making decisions about its printing, quality, and size. They offer a wide variety of options for the laid back consumer and the need-it-now type. The prices are dependent on the type of printing your have done — HP Electroink or thermal transfer.

Buying from Frontier Label

Purchasing stickers couldn’t get any easier. The site offers a wide variety of stickers — good for any marketing venture, product image enhancement, or simple goodwill gesture. The site caters to small businesses, startups, and even bloggers if you had the need. Sending a bumper sticker through the mail to a reader might seem like a trivial thing, but it could encourage loyalty to your brand. If you have a need for stickers or labels, then you at least have one new place too look.

Frontier Label – A review of a sticker manufacturing company from Jason Boom dot com

Google released their free Chrome browser today. This open source browser promises to be fast and quick with javascript applications, securing computers by sandboxing the websites they browse inside the tabs, and more than adequate with dynamic sites. I checked to see if G Chrome was downloadable when I first got online today, but found it hadn’t been released just yet. By mid afternoon, I was visiting www.google.com/chrome to see how it worked.

I was pleasantly surprised by the simple interface. Google created the browser from scratch, knowing that users like to watch videos, play flash games, and browse quickly from site to site. They also know most Web 2.0 sites have dynamic code to make them work. When I browsed to sites like Digg or Youtube, I was amazed at how fast they loaded. Others are comparing it to Opera.

Everyone should at least download the browser to see how your site looks in it — make sure it renders properly. There are also some neat features to mess around with, like the address bar suggestions/search and the incognito window.

The Incognito Window

I love the description of the Incognito window. They say to be wary of the following: 

Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:

• Websites that collect or share information about you
• Internet service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
• Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
• Surveillance by secret agents
• People standing behind you

Yes, be wary of the people standing behind you, secret agents, and other tin-foil hat wearing paranoids. Google’s got your back on this one. 

The Skinny

My sythesized thoughts on the new browser. Tell me your thoughts in the comment section. 

• The browser has no obvious IE 6 type of errors for my site. 
• I can access many sites faster now, especially dynamic sites. 
• I’m also scared of Google owning all the web. 
• It will likely work well for dropping EC, except the EC toolbar won’t work with it. Well, no plugins work with it now. 
• The “Most Visited” default tab rocks! It lets you quickly search, click on recent sites, and view recent bookmarks. Definitely a smart default screen. No reason why the IE one couldn’t do something similar. 
• I like the search on both the history and favorites. It’s nice, not sure how much I’ll use it, but handy. 
• I’m excited to see how they integrate other Google products with the browser, like Google Reader and Gmail. Any plugins related to those apps would be great. 

The Google Browser Chrome Released Today from Jason Boom dot com

I’ve gone through the site and done a few updates, removing old widgets from the sidebar. I found a few new widgets to take their place. One of the widgets, the Publicity Wheel, will have its own post later this week.

I added a widget called EntreDroppers. Some of you may be familiar with it. It displays links to the last ten EC droppers on my sidebar, directly underneath the EC widget. So if you’re dropping on me, you can expect to see a link back to your site on the sidebar shortly afterwards. I think it’s a good way to give back to anyone who drops. What do you think of it? The links are no-follow.

The Boom Shelter

I also updated the Boom Shelter with some announcements and new links to popular posts on the blog. I have a few things going on this month for my readers. If you want to have me review your blog, then just send me a note through the contact form. I haven’t received any messages yet, so I have four spots still open. It’s your chance to get a free Powder Keg Review.

Also, Si Philps announced he’ll be giving away EC credits when my next Boombox Podcast airs. I suppose this is both an impetus for me and for you. I have to create it, you have to submit it. Be on the look out for that.

Sidebar Additions and Updates from Jason Boom dot com

Have you missed me? I had an eventful April — full of article writing and a trip to sunny California. The problem was I didn’t make time for my blog. When you have a blog and let the content slip for more than a few weeks, readers tend to wonder what happened. They write emails, send out telegraphs, and post disturbing photos to blackmail you back to the writer’s table.

So what stole my time away? My freelance writing and travel. OK, and maybe some GTA action. I have it under control — really I do.

I can’t say things will be 100% better, but I plan on writing at least a few posts a week. I’ve got a few topics in mind. I want to write posts on writing better, to bring the blog back to life with a review, and to stimulate your senses with some lists style posts. I’m pumped. I will also post the May contest. So what have you all been up to? Leave me a comment, send a link, but, please, no more blackmailing.

Grand Theft Blog from Jason Boom dot com

With the upcoming Super Bowl, which I am mustering the nerve to watch since I am not a Patriots fan, we can all get a glimpse of extraordinary marketing. I haven’t heard whether GoDaddy will be doing one of their illustrious campaigns, but every ad should provide a lot of material for marketers to digest. So I’ll be watching as much for the commercials as I will the game itself. I’ll post more on that after the fact. For now, on to something more fun.

Everyone do the BLOG WAVE

Jeff over at BuzzMyBlog.com suggested we celebrate the upcoming Super Bowl with a blog wave. What is a blog wave? Each blogger adds their name to the list and the next adds his until the entire blogosphere stands up in unison to cheer on the Giants! (ok, maybe not.) Everyone get in on the fun and stand up for a moment… 

Here’s how it works:

1. Copy this entire post and repost it on your blog.
2. Join “the Crowd” by adding a link to your blog at the TOP of the list.
3. Drop a quick comment to the person you copied the post from (don’t spill their beer!).

How is this a Blog Wave you ask? Good question. When you publish this post, you will be adding your blog to the top of the list. The general assumption is that blogs at the top of the list are likely to get more traffic than blogs down at the bottom. So if we were to flip through the Google Analytics of everyone doing “the wave” in order, we’d theoretically see a blue tidal wave of traffic moving left to right! Who knows if it will work – let’s find out!

The Crowd:

• [Add your blog below this note!]
• Jason Boom dot com – Exploding on the Internet
• Buzz My Blog – Let’s Make Money Online By Working Together

So you simply copy the indented post to your own blog, and update the Crowd section with your own link. Get in the spirit. And, remember Patriot fans, nobody likes perfectionists!

The Patriot’s Bid for Perfection and A Blog Wave from Jason Boom dot com

I’ve had some friends in the past few weeks ask me, “How did you come up with the name Jason Boom dot com?” Can you guess my favorite response? I’ll give you a hint — it’s a scientific creationist theory.

“It was a Big Bang”

Even more people have asked how I received so much traffic so quickly. That’s a little more difficult to answer with one phrase. For that reason, I’m writing this post to blow apart what’s happened since January 12th and look at each individual piece of the experience, with a little back-story.

The Big Bang
My About page describes my situation fairly well. I’m a technical writer, freelance writer, small-time web host, and computer savant. For about 12 years, I had a ‘fuse’ that I refused to give up — cigarettes. January 7th of this year, I quit. I threw the fuse away. With that came increased energy and a renewed interest in pursuing my dreams.

One Friday evening, I sat down at my desk to surf popular blogs. I revisited my Google Reader which I’d largely ignored for several months, and sifted through some posts. One post from ProBlogger attracted me to the idea of writing my own blog. I read so many of his posts that day that I can’t pinpoint now which one it was. I’ll think of it eventually.

So then I went to my GoDaddy account to see what domains I owned. There were around eight to ten in there. Of the ones I had, I only considered one a viable name. I setup the domain and installed Wordpress. This was a Friday. By Saturday, I posted to this blog, under a different name.

The Sound of an Egg Cracking
The first post was closely followed by a second, where I showed off my office space. Darrin at Problogger had taken a video of his HQ and submitted a challenge for everyone to follow suit. On the ProBlogger.com site, I left a comment with a link to my office space post. Someone followed that link to my blog and commented on my workspace. I was so excited! I had a visitor.

It’s important to remember I was wanting to smoke during this time, so I was entrenched in this project. Mrs. Boom was quick to point this out on a few occasions, but mostly she let me stumble and trip over the internet without nicotine.

I ran across blogs that showed me Entrecard, which I promptly signed up for and installed on my sidebar. I wrote another post — a Sunday post, which was more playful than anything. Without nicotine it was difficult to sleep. I would lay in bed during these early nights and come up with creative ways to get the word out about my blog. Sunday the 13th I decided to change my domain name and create a brand that would be memorable. I wanted something easy to remember and something I could have fun marketing. Jason Boom was born.

Learning to Walk
I think for new bloggers, the first month can be crucial. It can make or break new blogs. Who wants to keep writing if no one listens? It can be depressing to only have a few readers after a couple of weeks. I didn’t want that to happen. Not on my watch. My whole meme, ‘exploding across the internet’ would be for naught. I had to make it work. But how?

I had the Entrecard widget on my blog, and I began to see a little traffic. I also visited 50 -100 blogs a day. I signed up for RSS feeds that interested me, and dug my heels in as I prepared to market my blog. I talked to my wife, and we agreed on a budget, initially of a $150.00.

I found a company that offered inexpensive logos, so I filled out their form, and three days later I had the Jason Boom image. I took the logo they created and fit it into my website. Through those first five days or so, I was constantly looking to make my site more readable, usable, and convenient. I wanted everyone to love the look and feel of it. This included taking a two column sidebar and making it a single column. But that’s boring, right? I’ll just tell you how I received 238 unique visits in one day, only 8 days after my blog went live.

You Pay for What You Get
I became a member of MyBlogLog and Entrecard. I signed up with BlogRush. I commented on various blogs. During that first week, I also took challenges from various blogs to write about topics they chose, or I responded to their memes. I can’t really say how many blogs I commented on, only that it was a significant number. Those comments always carried weight with the post or discussion too. I never just comments, great stuff, keep it coming, or anything of that nature. I kept it real, yo.

So I read the major Make Money sites (not that I claim to be that breed of blog myself). I do it to keep up with trends. I read them to see what the Jones are doing. From John Cow’s site, I read he was leaving town. Not only was he leaving town but he was leaving the country and wouldn’t be posting for two weeks. However, anyone who had quality ideas could have a chance to guest post. The old cow bell was ringing in my ears when I read this. I knew having a guest post would clearly be good for traffic.

That night I lay in bed mentally writing what had to be the most pun filled post ever on John Cow dot com. I felt like I was rolling out puns with machine gun efficiency. I couldn’t be stopped. I decided after laying in bed for an hour that I would just go write it down. Maybe then I could get some sleep. After explaining myself to Mrs. Boom, I hammered out the article and saved it for the next day.

The following morning I edited it and refined the text, adding a few points to lengthen what I shortened moments before. I went to the Cow’s site and submitted it. After that, I waited. Three days, actually. One day and someone else’s post was published. I was downtrodden but still held out hope. After all, I had a dynamite piece. I knew it would go live. And go live it did. I checked my email Monday evening and noticed I had received a comment from Wordpress, but it wasn’t my blog! It was from the John Cow dot com site. I was so excited. And what’s better? Everyone loved the piece.

How It’s Stacked Up
Part of my budget has included advertising. I’ve bought twenty dollars worth of ad space through Project Wonderland. I’m going to dedicate a post soon to that experience. What I will say now — It was worth spending 13 dollars on Entrecard exposure. I had limited clicks but more than 50K impressions. Close to 30K of those were from unique visitors. Wow! For a measly 13 dollars close to 30K people had seen my brand. That’s a good start.

My Google Analytics code was broken until the 19th of January. I have very little traffic measurements before the guest post went live, but can tell you on Sunday the 20th I only had 11 unique visits. The 21st my guest post was published on the Cow’s site. I had 155 unique visits, followed by 238 on Tuesday, and 196 on Wednesday. It’s slowly trickled down towards the 110 mark most recently.

However, with the amount of people who found out about me from that sudden burst of traffic, I feel I’ll be visited more often. I’ve continued to use Entrecard, which I need to convey carries a lot of my success.

Conclusion
There have been a few things I will analyze to write about later, like my ad campaigns and networking. These are things that must be honed with experience. So the first two weeks of this blog has taught me that my instincts for marketing this blog seem to keen and on the mark. I hope to share my success with all of you, in order to help you market your blogs to the world.

Stick around…We’ll have a blast.

The Big Bang Experience from Jason Boom dot com

1. Be a guest blogger on JohnCow.com.
2. Make more than $0.33 in AdSense revenue for one month.  
3. Get mentioned by a news media outfit as a source.
4. Sell all my available 125×125 ads space for $100 a piece.
5. Blog about some topic  and have it catch like wildfire around the blogosphere.
6. Do a video blog entry without sounding like an idiot.
7. Make it to the top 100 favorites in Technorati.
8. Have John Chow (or Cow) do a review of my blog without having to pay.
9. Take over the Internet with EC credits, buying up ad real estate on hundreds of blogs all at once.
10. Actually gain some traffic from BlogRush.
11. Offer Darren Rowse free spelling lessons.
12. Break a story on something relevant to millions of people. Have my server buckle under the traffic.
13. Make it to the frontpage of DIGG!

A Blogger’s Bucket List from Jason Boom dot com