Welcome to the readers of ProBlogger. I hope you have enjoyed my guest post on Understanding the Blog Lifecycle to Avoid Common Downfalls. I thought I would take a quick second and give you a little more information about BuzzMyBlog.com and what we do here.

BuzzMyBlog.com is a blog dedicated to bloggers helping bloggers to become more successful. It is an open and interactive community that encourages collaboration and group discussion to learn how to improve your blog and earn more money. I am not a fan of pointless contests, annoying pop-up ads, or other gimmicky tricks to earn a few bucks. Instead, I prefer to focus on helpful articles, expert interviews, and dedicated reviews of my readers. I invite you to see for yourself why BuzzMyBlog.com is not your typical "Make Money Online" blog. Here are a few noteworthy posts worth checking out.

• The Weekly Buzz is a special feature we do here at BuzzMyBlog.com and explains how the blog got its name. Each week I spotlight a member of our community and provide a free review of their blog. I also award a prize each week that the winner can use to promote their blog. I said I am not a fan of pointless contests. This is not a pointless contest. It is entirely for the benefit of my readers. The general principle is if everyone takes a few minutes to give the winning blog some good "buzz", the effort will be returned to each person many times over when its their turn in the spotlight. You can join the Weekly Buzz community here.
• A Step By Step Guide To Monetizing Your Blog - I am currently in the middle of my six part series that outlines my blog's monetization strategy. I encourage you to follow along and share any experience you may have so we all can learn how to make more money with our blogs. 
• Ask A Pro is a feature of my blog that interviews well known bloggers. Instead of asking one blogger a bunch of boring questions, however, I ask many of the top bloggers one good question.
• Finding Your Place In A Crowded Blog Niche is one of my favorite posts that really sums up what BuzzMyBlog.com is all about.

Please take a look around make yourselves at home. If you like what you see, feel free to sign up for my RSS Feed and follow along.

Thank you for visiting.

Jeff

Notice anything different? Hopefully BuzzMyBlog.com is looking a little cleaner. I've been working on these theme design changes for some time now, and I am pretty happy with them. What do you think? My goal was to make the changes subtle in order keep some of the personality of BuzzMyBlog. But I also wanted to clean things up a bit and make it a little easier on the eyes. I would love to hear your opinions and/or additional suggestions.

Perhaps things are not that noticable until you look at how it was. Here is are all the changes:

• Made the font a little bigger and easier to read 
• Added a little color to the menu bar
• Added a special header to focus on the Weekly Buzz
  • Shows the last 4 Weekly Buzz Winners
  • Give a quick intro to new readers
  • Shows the current week's prize
• Put more focus on my subscription options, including my Twitter profile
• Got ride of the cluttered third column
• Axed BlogRush, MyBlogLog, and other useless crap

I'll be adding a few more things in the days and weeks to come. Some things I have in mind are my actual Twitter feed and some private ad spots. In the meantime, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Thanks!
Jeff

Just joined Twitter. Getting the hang of it. Here's my profile http://twitter.com/JeffBuzz

I just wanted to drop a quick post to apologize for being a little quiet the past few days. I have been dealing with a slight technical issue. If you subscribe to my feed, you may have gotten blasted with a handful of my old posts the other day. Sorry about that. I have figured out the problem and will address it this weekend.

Ironically, I saw a nice spike in traffic because a lot of my older posts got some new StumbleUpon traffic. Thanks! I guess there really is a positive side to every problem. Unfortunately, in order to correct the problem, it might happen one more time. If it does, feel free to Stumble my posts once again.

Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience. I do have another post that I will be publishing later today. Thanks for your patience.

Jeff

Writer's block. It is an inevitable reality for all bloggers. What do you do when you can't think of anything to write about? I know that I need a good post in order to maintain the momentum of my blog. I just can't think of anything to write. So I think I am going to try something a little different. Its called a stream of consciousness. If you're familiar with characters like Holden Caulfield or Sal Paradise (aka Jack Kerouac), then you know what I'm talking about. I am just going to write what I am thinking. When you get hooked into this whole blogging thing, you're always thinking about it, right? So why not just write what you are thinking?

So the thing that is on my mind now is pretty obvious - what to write about. Here I am at my blog. I realize that the reason I have writer's block is because I am stuck in a perpetual state of repetativeness. I am sure many of you can agree with me that
    - all my traffic comes from either EntreCard or StumbleUpon
    - everyone around me is doing nothing but contests
    - a wake up everyday and do the same thing. Check my email, check my comments, visit the same blogs, and drop a few entrecards.

How can I possibly expect anything different to happen when I just do the same thing everyday? Does that mean I am going to jump on the bandwagon and do a contest too? No. But I think it is time to - dare I say it - think outside the box. In order to make in this blog world, especially when you are in a competitive niche like anything to do with money, affiliate or SEO, you've got to find a way to be different. BloggerNood is a perfect example with his Domain Tournament. Great idea. Another example is Daniel Scocco's Blogger Face-Off over at DailyBlogTips.com. These guys found something different and creative and it helped them to stick out from the rest. To make your blog successful, you've got to find something unique, creative, and something so totally different than anything thats been done before to separate yourself from the crowd.

Wow! This is so refreshing! I can not explain to you the feeling of just letting my thoughts flow through my keyboard. I started this post at 12:39 and it is now 12:47. What normally takes me 1 1/2 to 2 hours, I just did in 8 minutes.  I don't think my blog will last very long if all my posts are like this. But this was definitely a great exercise. I strongly suggest you try it. Even if you don't publish what comes out of you, just let your mind type. It could be a great way to get past that writer's block and let some enlightening thoughts that others might find interesting come to surface.

Have a great night.

Jeff

ps - this whole post was a true stream of concsiousness. It was done in 10 minutes and I didn't even proof read. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors. I normally try to be very careful about that because I believe it reflects poorly on me and my writing. I will go back later and add links to those who deserve them.

Blogging can be a crazy roller coaster of emotions. You can go from exhilarating highs to lonely lows in no time flat. One minute you have a killer post that is literally making your server "buzz" thanks to Digg and StumbleUpon. The next minute you swear that the Internet must be broken because no one is commenting on your latest masterpiece-O-S. In order to make it through these ups and downs, it is important to keep a level head. Don't get too cocky when things are going well. When things are looking bad, keep your chin up. As long as you are staying true to yourself (and your blog), and continue writing the best that you can, things will turn around sooner than you expect.

This happens to all of us. The excitement that you feel when you write something that causes a reaction is the reason why we blog. Publishing a post that gets a response from people like Shoemoney or Graham Langdon causes an addicting rush that pushes us on. How many of you have compulsively refreshed your stats to watch the number of StumbleUpon referrals climb through the roof? I know I sure have. Its more addicting than crack! But the flip side is also true. It can be so depressing when something we really work hard on does not get the reaction we hoped for. Sometimes it can create a downward spiral of negative thoughts that even makes you contemplate throwing in the towel. The important thing is to see through these emotions and stick with it. If you've got a good plan for your blog, keep following it. It will pay off in the end.

I have seen these ups and downs myself very recently. I had a couple of recent posts that got an amazing response. I was pumped. Around the same time I noticed that "contest fever" had struck the blogosphere. I thought to myself, "what better way to help out my fellow bloggers than to help them run their contests?". So I put together the BuzzMyBlog Random Contest Winner Picker to take all the hard work out of tallying up the number of entries and picking a winner. I thought it would be a smashing success. Boy was I wrong. It barely got noticed at all. Not only that, but my stats were way down for the week as well. I was seriously down in the dumps.

Did I let that get to me? Of course not! That is part of the game we call blogging! I have a plan for my blog. I have lots of exciting things yet to come. I am going to keep working and I am confident things will turn back around. I was going to write more about having a plan for your blog and sticking to it, but Ben Barden summed it up perfectly in his latest blog post. Check it out to learn how to keep your blog on track. Instead, I'll leave you with a few words of encouragement. There will be good times and bad. It happens to us all. Don't let the bad times get you down. Keep your chin held high and push on. Things will always get better.

Jeff

I have seen a lot of criticism lately about newbies jumping on the "Make Money Online" blog bandwagon. Its seems that everyone out there is saying "you can't be the next John Chow, so don't even try". Well I have one thing to say to those nay-sayers....."BACK OFF!"

Don't listen to them. Give it your best shot and try it anyway. Blog away. It is a fun and exciting experience that will teach you a lot about this exciting form of media. Yes...it is becoming a crowded niche. But that doesn't mean that you still can't have a successful blog. You just need to be realistic about your definition of success. You will not topple Shoemoney or earn more money that the ProBlogger. That is just not realistic. But if watching your subscriber count rise because people are taking an interest in something you enjoyed writing counts as a success, then by all means you should be doing it. If you blog because you find joy in blogging, then there is no way you can't be successful. At the very least your reward will be something you enjoyed doing. At the very most, people will like what you have to say and become ardent followers. Stay passionate and stick with it long enough, and you just might become a well-known name (and probably make some decent coin).

Now, there is one point that I must chalk up to the evil nay-sayers. One of their common complaints is that everything written by the MMO newb is just regurgitated information that has been discussed a million times on countless other blogs. Unfortunately, I think they do have a point here. If your blog just says the same repetitive thing as every other blog, what value does it offer a new reader? None! In order to find your place in a crowded niche, like Making Money Online, you must have a clear understanding of the true PURPOSE of your blog.

Take a second and think about this. What is the purpose of your blog? Do you even know? Maybe its to entertain. If so, your posts should be funny or thought provoking. Is it to inform? If so, you had better be a real expert on something and discuss things that few others know. If the sole purpose of your blog is to get people to click on affiliate links in hopes of getting rich quick, then good luck - you're gonna need it. The blogs that stand out in a crowded niche are the ones that have a clear and focused purpose.

I admit...it took me a little while to discover my purpose. When I decided to start this blog, I knew people were making money online but I didn't really know how. I thought to myself "what better way to learn than to blog about what I'm learning". It didn't take very long before I realized a gazillion other people had the same idea! So I needed to find a new direction. I realized that even though my blog was about making money, it was not my top priority. Instead, I was more concerned with helping other people make their blogs more successful. Eureka! My blog found its purpose!

I still write about some interesting things that I've learned in hopes of helping out a fellow newb. And yeah...I am sure they've been discussed before. But hopefully I can add a unique perspective or make the similar topic a little more entertaining. But I also like to help my readers. Just ask Raymond over at CommuterChronicles.com or Tom over at TechnoGumption.com. I'll do whatever I can to help. Want me to Digg or Stumble an article? Drop me an email. Need a guest post? I'll help out if I have the time. Leave me a comment, I'll write back. My Weekly Buzz feature will be announced any day now. I will spotlight a blog and give away free EntreCard credits each week. No strings! I want to help because I am one of you. Because that is the purpose of my blog.

What is the purpose of your blog? Figure it out and I am sure it will stand out in any crowded niche.

Jeff

Did anyone else notice that the little link at the bottom of the EntreCard widget on other blogs now reads "Get One" instead of "Drop Yours"? It seems that a recent change now requires you to sign in everyday instead of always being able to drop your card with a single click. Is it just me or is anyone else noticing this? Perhaps it is an attempt to force everyone back to the EC website a little more frequently. I don't know about you guys, but I have seen enough server issues with EntreCard that would make me think twice about bringing more traffic to the website. Don't get me wrong, I love EntreCard. I just miss being able to visit my favorite blogs and casually drop my card with one click. Hey EntreCard, can't you make our cookies last a little longer?

Jeff

Hey everyone. Sorry for being MIA for a while. I just got back from a week long snowboarding trip to Whistler/Blackcomb mountain in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. It was a long trip from Baltimore, Maryland, but boy was it worth it! The feeling of riding in 3 feet of fresh powder more than a mile high from the base of the mountain can only be described with one word - heavenly. There is no question why Whistler is by far the best mountain in North America. I am happy to say that the only injury I sustained was a blister on my pinky toe.

We drove through Vancouver on the way up to the mountain. I was hoping to spot John Chow along the way, but alas he was nowhere to be found. I must have missed some of the culinary hotspots that John tends to frequent.

Dining Out Vancouver - BuzzMyBlog Style

As an American, I was definitely in the minority at Whistler. There were a lot of Europeans and of course, Canadians. I was especially surprised by the number of Australians that work and play at the mountain resort. One night, I really thought I ran into Darren Rowse at a rowdy Irish Pub. Then I realized it was only Moby.  

ProBlogger & Moby - Long Lost Twins?

I want to thank Jason Boom for filling in with a guest post while I was gone. He really hit the nail on the head regarding the purpose of my blog. I want to help you make your blog successful and eventually profitable. On that note, I thought I would give you a little taste of some things to come in the very near future at BuzzMyBlog.com.

• I've made some interesting discoveries regarding Google Adsense. I'll share those with you and explain when you should and should not use the ad service.
• I'm am working on another Ask A Pro feature. As always, drop me a comment if you have any questions you would like to see answered by the top bloggers.
• If you've been reading my blog, you know how much I dislike contests. However, I do realize how popular they are so I am working on something to help you run your own contest.
• I am going to start a weekly spotlight on up and coming blogs called the Weekly Buzz. The point of this is for no reason other than to give you some exposure and new traffic. I'll even throw in a handful of EntreCard credits to help you further promote your blog. More details on this soon. Drop me a comment if you are interested. (No...this is not a contest. You won't have to do a thing for me. Aren't I nice?)

There are lot of exciting things to come here at BuzzMyBlog. I hope to hear from you and see you around.

Cheers!

Jeff

Seriously! It seems that every blog I turn to is having another lame contest promising fame and fortune (if you call EntreCard credits fortune). Enough already! Ok, I get it. Contests are a good way to boost your ranking and to get people to link to your blog. But can't you be a little more original? Blog after blog all I see is "link to my blog, win EntreCard credits". Sure it was a great idea for the first 50 or so blogs. But its been done. Think of something else! Here is a contest idea for you - read my blog, subscribe to my RSS, and post some comments. What do you win? How about satisfaction knowing that you read something interesting and maybe left something informative for another blogger! That sounds like a great contest to me.

Ok - sorry for the rant. Sometimes you just need to let these feeling out. Unfortunately, contests are so popular because they do actually work. And even more unfortunately, because of the infancy of my blog, I still need to participate in them! But here is a contest that I actually don't mind writing about. Why? Because I like this guy. Joe Tech is a lot like me - a married, 30-something, self-proclaimed tech geek (I even had a goatee like his). Plus, he has a great blog. So if you want some free ad space and 1000 EntreCard credits, check it out. I know I could use that prize!

Jeff