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.

February has come to a close. It was my first full month of running this blog. How exciting! I’ve made some major steps. I’ve joined a blog network, rewrote parts of my About page (although there’s more to come there), and created the first Boombox podcast episode. All in all it’s been a good month.

Happenings in February

I wrote an article that received quite a bit of traffic entitled “Creating Your Blog’s Perfume Page.” I wrote many other accomplished posts, including a followup post to the perfume page one. I’ve made many connections with other bloggers throughout February. I think that’s the prized accomplishment. I’ll do my earnings report right here: I made fifty dollars!

Traffic and Subscription Report

Before we jump into February’s results, I want to look back over the goals I set for myself.

February’s Goals

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

I think I’ve accomplished many of the goals for February. I raised my exposure on Entrecard by offering various services for sale in the shop. I have networked with other bloggers. My pageviews increased quite well. I didn’t do a guest post, but have agreed to do on one a neighboring site. I’ll do that soon, maybe this week. And I think I’ve commented quite a bit on other sites.

Now for the numbers:

Pageviews: 7,880
Unique Visits: 4,953
Time on Site: 1:45

Top Referral Sources: Entrecard with 1,169 and close second to Stumbleupon with 1,018.

Organic Searches found my site 103 times. I brought people for keywords of my site name, Nantucket, and spandex mostly. I need to work on that.

The most viewed page on my site was the homepage, with the most viewed article being the 100 Why Not Activities for Bloggers.

RSS Subscriptions

Many of you can now monitor my RSS subscriber numbers with me. On the first day in February, I had 41 subscribers. Today I have 60 subscribers. I had a high of 62 earlier this week. I hope to build that number by at least another 20 in the coming month.

Goals for March

Let’s hope March continues to expose my blog to new readers. I have joined a blog network and am seeing a good amount of traffic from that already. I am going to focus more on writing quality content this coming month, and try to take my eyes off the stats. I think it makes me too jumpy and sensitive.

1. Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
2. Increase my page views to over 10,000.
3. Increase time spent on site to average over 2 minutes. 
4. Network with other bloggers.
5. Guest post at least once.
6. Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
7. Raise exposure through Entrecard.
8. Increase RSS subscription numbers by 20.

Upcoming Explosions

I’m going to write a post on how to podcast. Believe it or not, there were not many sources of inspiration on this topic. I found no end-all-be-all posts on the subject. I want to create the how to podcast post to rule them all.

I have already begun thinking about my next boombox podcast. My wife says it needs to be more interesting. I agree, but the first one was just me testing out everything. Ok, no more excuses. The next one is going to rock!

Other’s Explosions

I want to start a new section on Sundays where I look at other posts throughout the week that influenced me. I have found quite a few recently that intrigued me.

Andrew Pavelski has started a new series focusing on successful blogs and how they got to be that way. I loved the first installment, and hope everyone takes a minute to check it out.

Jeff at BuzzMyBlog.com ignited a quality discussion about Entrecard this week. Graham Langdon responded with an in-depth view of the Entrecard economy. It’s a good read.

Mr. Javo will be celebrating his birthday this month. In recognition of that fact, he’s holding a contest to give away quality ad space and Entrecard credits. He even has a Jason Boom dot com banner on there! Go wish him a happy b-day by signing up for the contest.

I’m a fan of many great movies. I think the best would be classics from my youth — Pulp Fiction and the Big Lebowski for sure. I’m a huge fan of Dark City as well. I can go on, but will just leave it at that. I do have a point in telling you the movies I enjoy. The more memorable movies I watched came to me when I was younger. Maybe they made movies better back then. I think it had to do with time.

I had more time to watch and to appreciate a good movie. I could watch it more than once. I could revel in its scripted glory.

I think the same can be said of blogs. I found many that I fell for right away. I read them everyday. I have become attached to them. With all these great blogs in my feed reader, I find it hard to add new ones to my daily routine. I know I must branch out.  In this episode of the Weekly Implosion, I’m looking at various blogs and sites that affected me in a positive manner.

The Nominations Are…

I have found many sites helpful with my creation of this blog. One person in particular was there from the beginning. Jeff at Buzz my Blog who has also guest posted here.

I’m sure many of you have run across the goatee sporting tech guy’s website. Joe Tech needs no introduction, but his participation in my blog’s jettison to success has been formidable.

Ben Barden’s blog. What an inspirational blog. Need I say more?

Many blogs have affected me in a positive manner. I just wanted to shout out to a few of them in this post. They’ve won my Oscar.

Other Nominations
My blog would be nowhere without Entrecard. I signed up for the service probably ten days after launching my site. I have not looked back. At first, I dropped my cards on others politely. Now I push for 300 a day, and have built up quite a collection of ECs.

I found many of my current RSS subscriptions from the service. I also love the forums on the site, although they are a little slow. I have a few items for sale in the shop. One being a post idea, which actually is more difficult to fulfill than previously thought. Overall Entrecard has only been second to Stumbleupon as far as referrals to my site. The service continues to grow and become an internet success story.

I also enjoy the PostonFire.com site. I ran across the site when I was surfing through Entrecard. I was skeptical at first. I mean, it looks like Digg; it sounds like Digg; it must be a Digg wannabe, right? Only partially. The site has icons of fire, so that was a definite plus for me. I do like to ignite things. Along with the smart graphics, comes a really nice layout. Everything on the site appears readable, and friendly. The process of signing up wasn’t difficult, and adding friends, posting new articles, and firing other’s submissions all comes easy. Overall I love the site, and its helped me find a few new readers.

Upcoming Explosions
I swear I’m going to do a podcast. I’ve been busy with freelance writing lately. I’ll make some time though. Next week should see a recurrence of humor posts. I think they’re some of the hardest posts to write. Humor itself seems elusive in text form. I’ll try to capture some funny tidbits in a post I’ve been working on for a while.

A new barrel of fuctional blogging joy should be on the way. Look for a new Powder Keg Review this week.

Have you considered joining a blog network? I’ve been asked to put my blog into one. I’m thinking about it, and I’m going to write about it. The questions I have will be posted here with answers from the network owner.

It’s been another week. But its also been an exciting week, since this blog’s turned one month old. It seems like I’ve been blogging for a long time now, but only a month has passed by. It’s truly been a great experience. So on to this weeks happenings.

 Happenings this Week
I’m excited to announce I’m now a seller in the Entrecard shop. This week I spent a good amount of time racking up Entrecard credits to do an advertising push. In the meantime, I noticed more and more sellers in the shop selling everything from Stumbles to site reviews. I thought, I have some good ideas I can put in there. Why not shoot Entrecard support an email?

I’m currently selling a post idea item for 30 ECs, under the Consulting category. If you’re interested, you can pick one up here. I’ll be putting up other items this week as well.

Milestone Reached! Some of you may have noticed that I reached an exciting milestone this week. I now have 54 subscribers according to Feedburner’s count! Since I passed the imaginary 50 barrier, I thought it was time to include the Feedburner counter on the site. Have you seen it yet?

Site Tweakings. Thanks again to Si Philps for helping me sort out the div problem in my site’s header. I’ve included a random banner at the top, as well as an announcement box on every page. I hope to create a stickier website, with those images pulling in new readers to interesting content.

Guest Post. I posted a guest post on Buzz My Blog this week (who recently had a guest post on John Cow).  I’ve also been asked to guest post on a neighboring blog on a semi-occasional basis. I’ll reveal more on that later. I have also been commissioned to take the reins on a new blog. I’m looking forward to that opportunity.

Posts. I think my post was overlooked yesterday. I had some server trouble late in the evening and believe the email RSS didn’t go out on time. For those who didn’t see it, check out the interview with the Second Life character Kabalyero. It’s an exciting look into marketing and branding in the virtual world.

From the engaging comments, the Blog Perfume page post was a big success. I’m working on a followup to that discussion, as many readers had relevant questions that opened up new ideas for me. That will be coming this week.

Which brings me to…

Upcoming Explosions
As was just mentioned, I’ll be writing a second part to the art of branding through smell. It may evolve into a larger series as well. We’ll see.

I’m going to do a Podcast soon. It will be a trial thing. I think everyone has voiced their opinions and I will give it a shot.

As always, this week will find me hard at work providing new content, lively discussions, and exploring new opportunities. If you haven’t done so this week, backup your Wordpress installation. You may regret it otherwise.

In case you didn’t catch on, traffic is the theme for this weekly implosion. I had great success early in the week with the 100 Why Not Motivators for Bloggers post. Did you check that out? I’ll give a quick rundown of the results.

The post has been viewed 605 times in only one week. That’s great! The site saw 417 unique visitors the day it went live. Mainly because it was stumbled. I received quite a few good comments on that post.

I’m averaging over 150 uniques a day, but the numbers have been decreasing. You know what the answer to slowing traffic? More great content! I have some explosive posts in mind, and they’ll be rolling out next week.

Weekly Podcast?

I’m thinking of doing my own podcast. I’m not a radio personality by any means, but I think it would be fun. I’m considering explosive commentary as we speak. I’m not quite sure though. I would like to hear from my readers. Is this something you would enjoy? I’m not talking for 60 minutes or anything — just maybe a rant or two going anywhere from five to ten minutes. I’m still considering it. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear my booming voice.

Happenings this week

I did suspend the weekly contests, so there are no winners to announce. However, everyone has a chance to win a $100. Have you left a comment? It’s that simple to enter.

I also had another installment of the Powder Keg Review series. I’m excited about this series. I think it has the possibility of becoming the most popular feature of my site. I’ll be sure to do another one real soon. I’ve actually been in the process of writing the next installment, and it should be finished for Monday or Tuesday of this coming week.

Upcoming Explosions

I have a guest post that should be published this coming week on a neighboring blog. More about that when it’s revealed. I also have been developing the Boom Shelter that you see at the top of the screen. I hope to create and develop the page over this coming week. It will house the more static elements of this site. I’m still considering what all to do there. Keep checking it out for updates.

I’ll also be working on more inspiring blog posts. I want to write more about marketing your blog as well.

So let me know what you think in the comments: should I do a podcast?