Green Flamingobecause I said so

I am sure many of you have noticed, part of the problem I have with this blog is the posting frequency. It happens that I am very motiviated on the weekends, I get many good ideas, and I am ready for the whole week.

Then the week comes and I do not have time to blog, time to get anything out there. I try, and it stays in the back of my mind, but I always put it off, and therefore get nothing done.

You might wonder why it is such a big deal that I can only post on weekends, not on weekdays, but it is because all the other posts go out on weekdays. Most people are busy on weekends and they go places – I do to, but I still have more time overall than I do on weekdays. So if I do not post when others are here blogging, they might not see my post and no traffic will come. At all. So that is my problem.

So I know I have to write more, I will see how it goes this next week.

Earlier today, I woke up at five o’clock, and I decided that I would blog when I got up in the morning. However, I had to realize again when I woke up, that the other bloggers are not active, and really there won’t be much for me to do. In this case, it makes it hard for my world to go round, of good things and bad things, and I end up extremely bored with nothing to do.

This seems to be one of the biggest problems blogging has faced, everybody is tired and nothing is happening. It is just like the economy of the US, if consumers don’t buy because they don’t want to risk the money, then businesses will go bankrupt and there will be a broken country. It is the same within blogging. Nobody blogs, so the motive to continue is low, and the profits of continuing are even lower, which hurts everyone.

Over the summer I used to be able to see action online all day, everywhere it was bustling with competition, and even though I did not win, I got by, and I liked it. I could keep going on and I would always improve, keeping that hope that there was still room for success. But now that the blogging world is empty, then I am suffering, and I cannot keep on much longer.

I wish that an effort could be made to bring blogging back to life, because that is where it is fun, and how everyone continues to prosper. But now it seems like it is all at rest, and nothing can happen.

If you are asking me what can be done about this, I just have to tell you that you can’t control what other bloggers do, and what they have time for, and that you will just have to be patient sometimes. I do understand that is it a weekend, and blogging is not super busy on weekends, but still it shouldn’t feel like a graveyard.

I am just hoping that things will come out successful again and everyone will continue to prosper like before.

In your website, please please please do not be bland, and do not act like everybody else. It is not that I hate that, but I would there be diversity in all the blogs. Sometimes your website just needs that “piece of you” to be so great. Just the small unique detail that is like a texture on a fabric.

Your own piece of you could be almost anything on your blog. It could be your great writing style, pictures, a complex theme, a simplistic theme, a creative essence, a signature, and widget, a chatbox – what ever you want. What ever is needed, just be you.

I know you are told all the time that you should follow how a blogger does this, or how another person does that, and down to the very bone you could be the same website with different skin on the outside. And I know, you think you should be following all the things the millions of other bloggers taught you, not what I am telling you right now, but think about it.

I am assuming you spent at least 5 seconds of your busy blogging life thinking. And maybe you realized that you can do both. You can follow all the special steps you have learned, for they are important too, and I have used many techniques other bloggers have taught me. But you can also be creative, and add that little piece of you, so that you know that what is created from your hands is yours, no matter who you give it to.

Blogging is not just a way to make money, or to share your ideas, but it is more like an art.

Blogging masters have to learn and study, and experiment in the art of blogging before they become that master. Some have to learn it all, or some are a born natural, but all have to work to blog successfully.

Blogging is not limited to one kind of art either. It is all. You can paint or sculpt your blog, shaping and depicting your blog. One new diea too, blogging is like the art of combat. You are up against the world, and your enemies are no more than your friends. You learn certain moves to react against the blows on you, no matter how hard something may strike. You always have to get up and try again, until you can win with success.

To perfect the art of blogging you have to work hard and learn well, and interceot what comes your way and make it help you. You just have to shape what comes your way, and the paint the picture yourself.

In the blogosphere, when everyone starts to blog and new people create websites everyday,  when you get busier and your blog becomes less important on your list, blogging becomes much more difficult. Quality posts are harder to write, and you have less time to comment on other blogs and maintain your site.

There is more to it than explained above. Sometimes it is the little things that count, and the little things that you don’t have time for. When on a tight schedule, you will not have time to update your twitter, guide along your technorati, digg other blog posts, tweak your rss feed, add new gadgets to your site, explore new blogs, comment on old blogs, optimize your SEO, optimize your pagerank, etc. These little standards bring together some of the things that promote your blog, and some ways that people view the status of your blog. Though all these are really little, too be successful in many eyes of all kinds, some of the tidbits are important over a range so large.

And even when one needs most of those things to feel completely in control, posting regularly and commenting seems most important. Even so, you have to watch how you go about that. I have seen on some sites lately that they have slacked a little, the grammar may not be kept up, or an ordinarily well built post will simply have the outlines to it. I have been no exception, I could draw my posts out into something very well received. It just gets harder and harder to keep up the best work.

How To Make Things Easier

To make things easier for yourself and your blog you need a plan, a schedule, and you need to compact. You also need to take the same principles of ecology: reduce, reuse, recycle. You can reduce the fluff in your posts, and the time you spend dawdling off on unhelpful sites. You can reuse your knowledge, and space, even some content. You can recycle your old content too by making into something new, recycle other blog’s posts and resources that you find.

Incorporation is a big part of the process as well, which follows along timing and schedule. If you incorporate most of what you need to do in short, well put together pieces you can get a great amount done in optimal time. If you quickly make sure your site is all working before you post, then write and publish a quality blog post, that will be a start. Then you can twitter about that blog post, and start commenting on other blogs, which hopefully have comment luv and will track back to your most recent post. You can also submit your site to directories, and social bookmarking sites at this time. All that should fill your blogging time for a day, and can be completed within 1-2 hours, depending on how much time you spend with certain activities.

Besides the normal routine, you can create a waterfall of visitors with a new idea, program contest etc, that is new and that will promote extra traffic to your blog. These types of things really seem to help people have a burst in profit.

The bottom line is, with blogging times getting harder, and time for blogging decreasing, then you need to know how to create the best plan for your blog with whatever is available to you.

Beta Advertising Update: Because of a feedburner delay, the raffled advertiser has still yet to be drawn, so you can still enter. There are also two more spots up for grabs, just comment on the beta post and let me know.

Getting Back To Blogging

I know that many bloggers have to postpone blogging career, but then often they wish to come back. This could turn out to be a little hard if they are not up to date or  do not seem cut out for more blogging. I know there are a fair amount that have this desire, and I hope I can help.

Section 1: pre-launch                                                                                                                      1.  1. One of the first things you want to do is to figure out why you couldn’t blog before, and fix that  problem. It could be because of time, content, stress, or any other reason that would prevent you from being able to blog on a normal schedule.

If it is due to a time problem, you might want to free time or “shape” the time that you have to make room for blogging. Because if you don’t have time, then there is really no way you can get all the necessary pieces to keep the blog running.                                                                              Regardless of the reason, you still need a solution. For some of you, this might be the hard part, but there is always a time to take the jump and go.

2. The next thing you need to do is optimize your theme and clarify the stature of your blog. The first part of this of course, is to find a theme that is up to date, and a style that is up to date. You can quickly check on other sites similar to yours as samples if you need some.                                          If you continue with your previous theme, and think it is up to date and modern, there is not much to be done. When finding a new theme, then you should make sure the title is yours and the RSS section directs readers to your feed. Other optimizations such as added promotions, gadgets, colors, site statistics, etc. can be added to your theme as well.

Once that is complete then you should clarify your previous content, organize posts, categories and tags, edit pages, so that your blog is current and ready for the public.

3. The third thing you should do is to write new content, as far as posts and pages. You do not need to wait a week before your new launch, but you should have one or two posts that are current for your readers to browse as they visit. The posts should be modern ideas and helpful information, probably not a “sorry I left but I’m back” 100 word post that you scrambled up in 10 minutes, but more like a half hour long, well written, well composed post that is thorough and new, showing readers that you care, and making then want to come back. It could also be thoughtful, and display some sort of message, if informative is not your type.

Section 2

4. Now it is time to relaunch your reborn blog! If you do not have a huge launch plan set up, then there are simpler ways to get your site back on the market. The way I like best if to visit other’s blogs and leave lots of comments. First of all, by reading your colleagues post’s, then you learn what is going on, more news, and if you have previously established a name for yourself the chances of recognition will be higher. You can travel to old sites, new sites, different sites and blue sites. All kinds of places you can promote the relaunch of your blog by just leaving a peace of your mind.                                                                                      If you feel like going all out, then you can throw in advertising, forum activity, and other ways of promoting your site, but really you only need to comment and your blog will start to grow back.

5. Now that you have gotten traffic back to your site, my last piece of advice is to keep up the blog, which like the first step, in solely your effort. You can make it grow bigger and bigger, and if you make money with it then you can hook up your programs and make money again once your site gets popular. So if you are able to post consistently, and visit others sites consistently, as well as leaving time for new things, then I think your blogging career will be very well back on track.

Yet again I write, yet again I realize. Yet again I think, ponder, act. Yet I do not always inform, or finish what I act upon.

For months Green Flamingo has held strong, and has grown just as a child would. We have all grown with it in some way too.

Green Flamingo’s voice has been silent over the past few weeks, but is ready to speak up again and be known to the world as a brave website with character and endurance.

Now I might want to word things in words you can understand. I know I have been out for 3 weeks, but I am not going to apologize and explain everything that went on. I just want to thank you, my readers.

I want to thank all of you for staying subscribed, I really appreciate that you think of this blog when you browse the Internet.

I also want to thank you for staying as active as you can, though it is hard if I do not post.

Today, this day, is September 23rd, the first full day of Fall. To me this signifies the time of my summer being over, and a new season beginning and I will rise in my efforts.

The most important saying I have though for you is:

“Forget the past, browse the future, and focus on the present.”

Those words will explain to you the meaning of this post, the meaning of my words, and the meaning of you and me becoming new people.

Well done some evil things in life, and I have been told I am evil, mostly  by my sister. Just a short little thing on my most recent evil doing.

One of my latest things was on bloggervenue.com, I am going through the 100 best blogs list and voting.

Here were my rules:

• My site I rated 5
• Any site I am an active part of I rated 3 and up
• Any site I have heard of but I am not really active on or don’t visit often, or I just hear is good I rate it 2
• Any site I have never heard of I vote 1

Try going by those rules, just remember to credit me by voting me 5!

I meant to write this earlier  but oh well, read it now or never.

There have been many contests circulating since June, that is when I really noticed a kick in all the contests that were being started.

Since June I have seen a few well run contests, and a few typical ones that are always great but are having almost the same contest as 70 other blogs (don’t ask me why I picked 70). These contests can get annoying as well. Though I do love contests and prizes, there are SOOOO many out there that I don’t have time to join and participate in every one, for there is just no point.

Usually, I would not care that tons of blogs are having contests, but in a certain way I do. See I love to read blogs, be surfing them, comment and get to interact with the author and other readers. When a contest comes up, the calm is disrupted and people will go crazy for the prize. There are a lot of spam comments, a lot of questions, and a lot of worthless and foolish stuff circling the blog. I almost feel like I should participate, but know I don’t have the time or energy to be the top commentator with 80 comments, write 10 blog posts about it and link to all the prizes and all the sponsors. It would just drive me crazy!

Recently, a friend and fellow  blogger Rajaie talked about how he hated that so many contests were being started, and I have to agree with him. Though contests are great, they can be a huge annoyance and sometimes you have to lay off the shit and get the gold.

Now we will move on the the real topic of this post, and that is what I qualify as a good contest vs. a bad or unworthy contest.

What makes a contest worth it

Some contests are really worth it to enter, let me share some of the reasons with you. I should tell you, I feel that our friend Ben Patton’s contest will really be worth it, he is giving away a laptop! And here are our 10 good reasons to enter.

1. You have a unique or uncommon prize
2. You have a great or valuable prize
3. You have interesting ways to enter and earn points
4. You do not have 4 million prizes or sponsors
5. You are a good blogger with shark-bait content
6. Your previous contests have been great (not always a reason)
7. You don’t make your readers sweat to much
8. You are always interesting no matter what
9. You give a chance to get something for nothing
10. The thing I forgot [fill in answer here]

I was not sure I would come up with 10, but I edited and got that many. I hope you agree with those, be sure to fill in your answer in the comments.

What makes a contest hit the fan (what makes it suck like hell)

1. Your prizes are all too common
2. You have 10 million prizes and sponsors
3. Your prizes are worth 2 cents
4. You have stupid ways to enter and win
5. You never have good content
6. You have other contest failures
7. You make your readers go get you a million dollars
8. You are a dull person
9. Every prize you have to work your ass off for
10. You are a mean person

There are a few reasons for you that make your contest terrible.

Now neither of these qualifications really fit anybody, most are average, a lot of recent contests leaning to the bad side, maybe because it is just too small or some other reason. Most contests manage to pull of a good show, not quite like Jon Stewart or Chris Brown but still something that’s ok to waste your time on and win a few prizes.

So I am not saying your little contest is bad, but I am saying that next time you should think before starting a contest, you really have to make it worth it and not pull it out of thin air with a few ad spots, text links, and some reviews. You have to make it more sophisticated and interesting and then bloggers and sheep will come flocking to you like crazy.

I also have another post that I add onto and that adds on to mine, they would work combined I guess, so I should let you stomp on over to Jay at Datmoney and then come back and tell me what you liked of his article telling you 5 reasons why he WON’T sponsor your contest.

I should also tell you again I am thinking of running a contest, have no fear I will have most of the pro reasons in mine. I am looking for sponsors, so if you have a great idea for a prize let me know.

-The Green Flamingo

Last night I had a post in mind for very early this morning, unfortunately that did not work out, because I forgot. I might remember later, I almost did, but not quite.

Even though it was an idea for a great post, I think I might have to shift the focus of this blog once more anyway. I am trying to provide quality articles that really help you out or show you something, but today Jason made me notice that I am not always unique in content, because 50 million other bloggers are giving the same information.

I could go with more of an opinion on things for my posts, but it still uses the same topic and that can be very boring. I am trying to find an actual “niche” for this blog, I may stick it onto young entrepreneur and Internet marketing while I blog about blogging, but not about “blogging tips.” I think I have some ideas, I will continue later.

I do not need to list all the upcoming things I might have yet, I am going to have a post encouraging suggestions, though I do highly encourage suggestions on this post as well.

I also want to announce the winner of the review, the first of many I hope, and this weeks winner is…Big Ben Patton of Big Ben Patton’s Place! Look for the review tomorrow!

Also, today I spent a lot of time working on my new site, loking for themes and tweaking them, helping the author to write articles, things like that. See you later!

-The Green Flamingo