Granted this post is aimed at bloggers and those who would like be become successful bloggers, but it’s also one that will show you that by combining your efforts, you can make money online.

This is not a quick way to pay the bills, however, if you have never proven to yourself, not once, that you can make money well here’s a good way to start.

And, the wonderful added bonus is… you’re driving traffic to someone’s web site, and (if you list yourself) you, too, will receive a flood of traffic in return.

So on the positive side your traffic count goes way up (thus way down in Alexa and those entities out there counting traffic stats) and you have that must-have action – the chance to put your blog in front of a real person’s eyes (so be ready and make sure your business plan is clear-cut for other’s to grasp when they get there).

On another positive note, you can (more…)

Update Time! You might want to glance at the post below to know what I mean

I’ve spent the past week plus getting a cram course from my brother who (thank god!) understands coding, hosting, windows (which I’m not using), and Plesk and Linux (though he hates the latter).

I (using the term losely) am moving the entire Whole Hog Blogs network of massive wordpress blogs to new servers – bigger, faster, just all in all great to make the move AND save some cash in the process. Of course in the beginning, it was me doing the data gathering and him sewing it all back together.

But the learning curve has been brutual with 16-20 hour days for what seems like my life. I’m sure my brother is thinking the same thing.

I actually interrupted him while he puts together a HUGE website/blog (that I will write all about in the very near future since he’s looking of course for not only readers but WRITERS).

I am pleased to say that with only short/quick phone calls now (and not every single time LOL), I believe I have come close to mastering the art of moving small, medium, and large (well organized) wordpress blogs. There was an instance, or two, where he patiently put back together anywhere from 30,000 to 90,000 lines of code! Thank you Bob!

So the move is almost accomplished! I loved where I was hosting everyone at Rackforce, it’s just that it was impossible to pass up the bargain of a brand new server built from the ground up with over six times the storage and 10 times the backbone (for much less).

I’ve been a cpanel person all my online life, but you know even when you want to give up and run back to what’s “safe” it’s worth it to stick to your guns and learn something new! Now I’m comfortable with another way to do business using Plesk! TaDa!

More often than I’d like (okay I really enjoy it but you have to be careful), taking a trip around the root directory of one’s host and/or the admin areas of wordpress blogs (or any type of database-driven “website) means finding ways to cut back on the use of resources.

Recently, and forgive me but I cannot remember where I was or who said it, but they quoted Yanik Silver as saying if you are running more than (more…)

I feel like a fool for even writing it because there most likely isn’t a person on the planet that hasn’t at least heard of Facebook by now.

But if you’re a Facebook fan, did you know that they’ve teamed up with Ask.com to provide you with a nifty little interface? This toolbar can save you hours of time and keep you current with the goings-on within your Facebook account. Best of all – yes, it’s a free download!

Social media web sites, and staying actively involved in the ones you’ve chosen, can be difficult at best. Who really has the time to jump from one social community to the next? You know you NEED TO because it not only makes great business (and or just friendship) sense.

That’s why I highly advocate grabbing and using toolbars whenever possible! Makes your life a whole lot easier… And again, why not? It’s free

The other day while visiting our Twitter, I was struck by how many different posting and contact systems are currently in place to help you Tweet more efficiently.

In our January 4th post, we mentioned a couple:

TwitterBar 1.1
TwitterFeed

The first allows you to add comments directly to your Twitter from the address bar of your browser. It is an addon for your Firefox browser. Extremely simple to add, very easy to use.

The second is a slightly confusing, but ultimately satisfying, way to have a third party recognize your new posts and announce them – automatically – to your Twitter account.

But then I started going down through our lists of followers, and taking notes on how individual Twitter-ers are able to (seemingly) Tweet and get stuff done. Turns out there are a wide variety of tools at your disposal. Some make it easier to post, some are desktop interfaces (versus tabbing back and forth to your Twitter account).

Here’s what I’ve located so far – with short explanations of what each of these services and/or software programs do:

Tweetie
For those who hang onto their iPhones and iPods with a vise-like grip, this tool is an application you can add to make posting and/or answering Tweets easier. This download-able application costs $2.99. For screenshots just click that link.

TwitterGadget
You can add this method of Twittering to your Gmail account using Gmail Labs (here are the installation instructions. What this program does is best represented by a quote from their website, “TwitterGadget is a clean, robust, web 2.0 style client for Twitter.com, designed to submit status updates to Twitter via your iGoogle homepage or Gmail Account.” I invite you to visit and interpret the rest yourself.

TweetDeck
TweetDeck is in beta, but I see an awful lot of die-hard Tweeters using it. It’s designed to help organize the massive amounts of incoming information, as well as allowing you to interface with your followers. Again, a quote from their website is in order, “It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.”

TwitterFox
This is also a Firefox addon so installing it (like all things Firefox) is a breeze. TwitterFox “adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets.” In addition, it also has a small text input field to update your tweets.

Tweetfeed (not to be confused with TwitterFeed)
And last (for now) but most likely not least, Tweetfeed, a Twitter activity page that shows live what’s happening on your Twitter. You can customize the setting, and create what they call “Tweet walls” for conferences and events. Actually they state, use it however you want. We’ve added a link to a few TweetFeed examples

I do want you to know that, to date, I’m personally only using the first two referenced at the top of this post. But again, the ones listed are used constantly by Tweeters.

I should also note that TweetDeck (in beta) looks very appealing, but my Kaspersky firewall had strong objections to it. Most likely nothing at all to worry about, but I’m paranoid and decided to wait.

No doubt you’ve heard in the news lately of a few (stupid) tweets made by those (in our government) who should know better. Giving a step by step itinerary of one’s trip through war-torn Middle Eastern countries is definitely a stupid move.

However, in terms of instant communication, once you get the hang of it, Twitter isn’t going down the tubes as predicted numerous months ago. If anything, with all these tools available, mastering and using Twitter may be just the perfect move for you to make this year!

Enjoy!

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