Getting Started Blogging - Day 24

Typing the title just made me realize this challenge is getting near the end. Even though I sort of changed direction during the challenge, I’m still very excited about this whole blogging thing. I’m learning so much it’s incredible, I love it!

The guys at Spottt, the free link exchange network, are really cool. Yesterday was the launch day and I signed up as soon as I heard about it. The whole idea seemed really fair (and the dog illustrations are cute :p ). Today, the founder sent all 500 or so persons that registered yesterday an email that was really a thank you note. But he also added a little bonus, 10000 free points. That’s the equivalent to 5000 ad impressions. Free advertising is always welcome! Now I need to design a nice little 125×125 ad to promote X-Day Challenge. So if you have suggestions as to what message I should put to grab attention, please let me know in the comments below.

2008-02-13

Unique Visitors : 35

RSS Subscribers : 9

Total Readers : 44

Wake Up Early - Day 6

Yesterday I felt some fatigue mid-day. I don’t know if this is due to my sleeping only 6 or 6 1/2 hours per night or if it is due to too much work because of the extra time I have everyday. I’ll try and do less physically and mentally-demanding work during the extra time I have for the next couple of days to see if the fatigue is still there.

Tomorrow is Valentines Day so I’ll certainly take the evening slow with the girlfriend. Valentines Day will probably mess up my sleeping schedule a bit, but it’s only for a day. I can live with that.

Getting Started Blogging - Day 23

You might have noticed the new 125×125 square ad in the right sidebar. It’s a new link exchange program called Spottt that I heard about today. Spottt is a free link exchange program. Basically you put a script on your website that will display ads. Everytime an ad is displayed, you get 1 point. You also setup an ad on Spottt and for every 2 points you have, your ad is displayed once on another website. I like this system since it is free and it’s extremely simple. No complicated campaign setup and tracking, no payments, etc … Sure, it’s not targetted, but it’s free and it’s maintenance-free. Just a one-time setup. Stay tuned for a more in-depth review of Spottt.

2008-02-12

Unique Visitors : 33

RSS Subscribers : 7

Total Readers : 40

Wake Up Early - Day 5

Nothing really different to say anymore. I’m only writing this to keep the journaling up to date. So just a quick note to say I’m still keeping up with this challenge.

Getting Started Blogging - Day 22

I’ve had the time to play a bit with TNX today. I received 5000 free points for signing up so I indeed started a campaign to use these points to buy links to X-Day Challenge on other websites. It will probably help with the rankings on Google and Yahoo. This is always a good thing. In the mean time, I’ve setup X-Day Challenge to sell links too. It takes some time for TNX to index the pages of this site, but I should see links in the next couple of days. My plan is to re-use any points earned in selling links to buy links back on other websites.

I also received some traffic from tipjoy today.

2008-02-11

Unique Visitors : 47

RSS Subscribers : 8

Total Readers : 55

Wake Up Early - Day 4

This challenge is still going great and it already doesn’t really seem like a challenge anymore! I’ll continue to post daily updates until day 7 and I’ll see if after that I should only post weekly updates.

I’m finally able to go to bed early (before midnight) and I feel completely rested when waking up.

Getting Started Blogging - Day 21

I’m exploring several ways to monetize X-Day Challenge. I’ve looked into Project Wonderful, Amazon affiliate, Text Link Ads, and recently, TNX (similar to Text Link Ads) and tipjoy.

I really like the concept behind tipjoy, it’s an easy way to make a micro-donation to a website without using paypal or any other form or payment. In fact, you don’t have to pay any time soon. You can continue tipping a website or other website using tipjoy, and if you have a website of your own you can receive tips that will pay your current balance. Otherwise you can pay whenever you decide to. I’ll do a review of tipjoy soon, when I see how it goes for X-Day Challenge.

In the mean time, if you like what you read here, please, click the “tip this” button below

2008-02-10

Unique Visitors : 24

RSS Subscribers : 8

Total Readers : 32