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?  

 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.

This week’s implosion brings us the winner of the contest that began on Monday.  If you didn’t know about the contest and wished you’d signed up for it, a new one will be up tomorrow. Stay tuned for that.

The Randomizer
There were quite a few entries into this week’s contest. But not so many you didn’t have an excellent chance of walking away a winner. I found the random.org site to be the best solution to a fair turnout. I did the two 125×125 month long ads first. The winners are…

 Erz from Blogodise

and

Andrew Pavelski from www.andrewpavelski.com

The next set of random numbers revealed who would win the 3 available links on the sidebar for a month. And the winners are…

Carl from ThatBlogSite.com

and

Sensei from ContestU.com

and

Chuck from www.southpawgolfclubs.com

Congratulations to all the winners! I’ll be putting the ads up this afternoon. I hope you all receive a ton of traffic from the deal. If you didn’t win, be sure to check back on Monday for another great contest.

The Meat and Potatoes
This week has been met with a ton of success. I’m continuing to explode on the internet, and meeting some great people along the way. I’ll recap this week’s accomplisments, and see just how far Jason Boom has gone since its inception. To see a recap of the first two weeks, take a look at The Big Bang Experience.

1. My guest post to John Cow dot com was published on Tuesday evening.

2. I received a flattering account of my own explosion on the internet from LinkBaitMe.com.

3. As a result of the LinkBaitMe article, I talked to Joe from JoeTech.com about ways to give out excess EC credits. The EC slots were born of that discussion.

4. Lorelle, writing at the BlogHerald.com, used some of my musings as a catalyst for a very interesting article.

5. I’ve become a part of the growing forum community at Bloggeries.com.

6. I’m currently on the frontpage of www.blogintro.com. So if you want, go there to vote for The Boom.

What’s Next?
It’s a new week on the horizon. I have plans to engage everyone with some awesome content, the weekly contest, and the possibility of a Fantasy Friday series. I’m exploring what sticks with my readers, so your feedback definitely matters the most around here. I enjoy the writing, but I need to know what reading you enjoy.

So stick around…as a commenter recently reminded me, this is just the beginning.

Why do we spend our days writing blogs? I’ve thought about this, as I’m sure all bloggers have at some point in their blogging careers. As with anything, its as much about the lifestyle as it is about the blog itself. We create content, network with other bloggers, join communities, rate blogs, write comments, surf listings, seek out new online thrills, buy advertising, sell advertising, trade links, buy links, fret over traffic, add widgets, join RSS feeds, gain readers, and have a great time doing it. All of which I’ve enjoyed doing this first full week at this blog.

The appeal of making money sure does sound great, but when that becomes the primary goal of anything it tends to outshine the other inherent qualities. Do we blog to make money, to increase our awareness of writing itself, to join communities, or do we do it simply because we love to blog? I think its the latter. We love this stuff. This is how we build a strong reader base.

I want to hear from you. I want you to tell me why you blog, either in a blog post or in the comments here.

This week I’ve seen other people’s blogs used in many different ways. I’ve seen blog posts written on the devastating effects of cancer, how to build strong ties to fellow bloggers, on topics similar to my own, and I’ve joined fellow bloggers in an attempt to win favorable ad space on CyberStreet Report.

Upcoming Posts
This week on JasonBoom.com we’ll be running a contest of our own. The details of that will be made public either Monday or Tuesday. Be sure to check back for that. We will also be starting a few new series of blog posts. The first of which will be powder keg reviews. The idea behind the powder keg is they can unlock a lot of potential for your blog. We’ll be reviewing new blog community sites, tools, widgets and plugins in this series.

The Weekly Implosion
This week has been jam packed with information, since the blog just went live under the Jason Boom name one week ago. I’ve made friends, photographed my office, did a quick review of what other bloggers have been saying, discussed the change of my blog name, unveiled the stellar logo, participated in Lorelle’s travel post challenge with this gruesome entry, submitted a guest blogger post to the vacationing cow, and a whole lot more.