It’s taken a little time to understand, but I’ve finally started to use Twitter effectively. Well, as effectively as being myself can be. Twitter can be terribly time consuming and just a little bit overwhelming at first blush. So why do so many A list bloggers, regular old bloggers, and industry leaders use the service? Well, because it’s appealing.

The Twitter folks have created a platform where you can write 140 characters and then update your followers with your activity. Those who follow you will see your updates in their Twitter dashboard or through their standalone Twitter application. It’s micro-blogging to some, a new chatroom to others, or simply a place to promote. It really can be used for any number of things. Many bloggers have written posts about effectively marketing yourself through Twitter.

Through fear of breaking unwritten rules, in the beginning I simply sat back in the Twitterosphere to watch others’ activities. I followed a few people, began to follow some of those they talked to regularly (using the @ function), and then I started to interact.

At first, I marketed the posts on my blog, but then I realized Twitter occupies more space than simple link exchange. It’s an open dialog with multiple followers. By participating we can gain more than a small influx of readers, we can begin to network.

I’ve never been one to undervalue networking. The practice leads to business, success, and, well, traffic. Twitter differs from other networking sites I’ve joined. For instance, Entrecard has forums and a message system where I can interact with users. I’m not one for forums because I have to keep track of the different threads and I’m usually too busy to check back often enough to see who’s responded. Twitter allows me to catch up in one place, and use multiple tools to keep updated.

Everytime I log into Twitter I can see who’s messaged me directly – who’s writing about what – and I can choose to update everyone on my current thoughts or simply browse the messages of users I’m following. It’s made the act of networking so much more simple than following multiple threads in a forum or accumulating friends in a social network. It’s started a conversation.

I follow quite a few outspoken individuals. I enjoy reading their rants and their debates on branding, blog etiquette, and media networks. It’s also been a place where I can talk about other issues I enjoy, like politics, gaming, movies, and everyday stuff. But I’m still a newbie with the service.  

What do you think of Twitter? Do you think its valuable a valuable tool for developing your brand? Do you use it for fun? Or have you not succumbed to the Twitter bug…yet?

My Twitter Account

A blog network can be a truly helpful tool to new blogs, so when Antonio Marques of Digital-Folders.com emailed me asking if I wanted to join his network I had to consider it. Many of you might not be familiar with Blog Networks just yet. They offer bloggers a way to connect to other blogs, both in content and in readership. The basic framework of any blog network revolves around helping each blog succeed.

The Digital-Folders network is a fairly new one, as compared to older, established networks like B5Media.com. Other than having links on the sidebar of other blogs back to my site, what benefit exists in joining a blog network? Can anyone join? I had these questions on my mind after Antonio’s initial email, so I asked him these questions and a few more. He’s graciously allowed me to post the responses to those questions. I’m still in the deciding mode, but I encourage those of you who want to experience the benefits of a blog network to check out Digital-Folders.com.

I would retain all rights to my blog, right?
Absolutely correct. We do not claim any rights on anything on the associated blogs. All content is owned by the authors and they can, at any time, break the association with us. It’s your blog and you steer it in any way you want. We may provide advice but again, it’s your blog.

The ad space on my site would be sold at 75% profit for me, correct?
Correct again. You’ll know for how much we are selling it and 75% of it is yours.

How much would estimate a site like my own would pull in for ad space?
This is probably the hardest question we face. It’s not easy to put a price tag on a space. We like to discuss this with the bloggers and know how much they would like to sell it for. Nonetheless, it’s always a fine balance: Too high and it won’t sell, too low and we’ll be loosing money. We like to start low and see what the response from advertisers is. The pricing is a progressive process, and prices can be easily changed to deal with changes in the growth of each site. For an estimate, you’ll have to tell me what spaces we are talking about and what the demographics for your site are.

Do I have any say so on who can advertise on my site?
As principle, we do not allow ads from suspicious sites or sites connected with anything illegal. We also steer away from gambling or adult sites. If you want to approve every advertiser, it’s possible to be done, or you can trust our editorial instincts. As for advertisers that we approach, we can guarantee that they will be relevant to your site and provide value to your visitors. And let’s face it, this is direct advertising: companies or sites usually don’t invest money on ad space that will not bring them some targeted visitors. But again, if you so wish, before putting an ad live we can contact you and ask your opinion on it.

Do you have quality standards you hope to meet with new blogs?

This question needs to be addressed differently for a blog integration (like yours) or for a blogger wanting to open a new blog with us.

In the first case, we have a “checklist” that every already existing blog needs to meet before either we approach the blogger or the blog is accepted. One of the main points is quality. We don’t mind if the blog is still small, but if the quality it shows looks promising for a steady growth (like yours), we will approach it.

or new blogs to be hosted by us, it’s a harder process since we have nothing to evaluate. On our application page for new blogs, we ask a brief description of what the blog will focus on. If we find the idea promising, we’ll take it. It’s risky since a blog is not only constructed by good ideas and it will probably require a good deal of tutoring to get it running.

In any case, both for integrated blogs and new blogs, we have an individualized training program where we discuss with the bloggers things that could be changed and/or improved to allow for a faster growth, so no blogger is alone on this ride with us.

Also, we try to regularly clean our list. What I mean with this is, if a blog drops in quality for an extended period of time and we can’t get the blogger to get back on it, we’ll probably drop it from our roll. Statistically, 95% of the new blogs around do not survive long. We try our best to reduce that “death rate” with our blogs, but if it simply can’t be brought back, we remove it from our inventory in order to maintain the quality level.

Thanks again, Antonio for answering my questions. I will be following up with Digital-Folders soon with an answer. In the meantime, what do you think, readers? Would you join a blog network? Do you think it would help your blog explode on the internet?

I think this post title sums up my feelings from this morning. I woke up to find my Feedburner count had dropped by 11 subscribers. I quickly felt the pang of defeat. I wanted to know what could cause such a sudden drop in readership. I had written good content, right?

 I did a quick blog search through Google. I think this is the quickest way to find out what’s happening in the blogosphere. I found a number of articles talking about Feedburner counts dropping yet again. The first search I found took me to the Feedburner blog, which had a post from yesterday.

Google Integrating Feedburner
It sounds like the big G will be swallowing fire. The Feedburner crew has been hard at work behind the scenes making their service more Googley. It wasn’t until I read the comments on the post that I found the culprit for my lost subscribers.

Google Reader numbers were not counted yesterday. Oh, the irony.

So while integrating the service to be architecturally similar to Google’s backend architecture (i.e. putting/removing the junk in the trunk), they somehow lost touch with their very own service. I guess those are growing pains. Or is that indigestion? I don’t know for sure.

Living by Numbers
Needless to say, it’s rough losing 20% of my subscribers overnight. Someone on the comments of the Feedburner blog said their blog went from 500 to 150 overnight. I must say that’s a lot of Google Reader readers. I might have fallen out of my chair had I seen that much of a drop. As it was, my drop had me re-reading my past posts, looking for offending material. I’m glad it was just a glitch. You’re all still here, right?

Do you know how Feedburner counts subscribers? Curious? Mr Javo put up a nice discussion on the topic last week. You might check that out. In the meantime, I’m off to russle up some subscribers.  

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?  

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!