Telling It Like It Is

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Tips To Building Web Traffic And Links To Your Blog
2007-11-16 23:39:00
I've been doing a tremendous amount of research into suggested and "proven" ways of building web traffic and links to my blog. While it can sometimes seem like climbing Mt. Everest, I feel fortunate that many of my favorite blog authors have vast amounts of articles on the topic of "Build Web Traffic " and links, making the research much easier for me. After careful review of many blog articles discussing techniques to build web traffic, it's a bit unsettling to find that there is great disagreement in what works vs. what does not. After all was said and done, I decided that I would have to try various suggestions and determine for myself the validity of the claims made.Participate In Blog Carnivals-One suggested method of building web traffic, links and subscribed readers, is by participation in Blog Carnivals. I've run across various blog posts discussing upcoming Blog Carnivals, such as the "All Women Blogging Carnival", but had not taken the time to really delve into what is i...
More About: Building , Tips , Links

Telling It Like It Is - Comment Policy
2007-11-15 02:35:00
Until recently, I hadn't given any thought to the need of a Comment Policy for my blog. While I get my fair share of spam-like comments, "Great post, here's my link", I've simply deleted them without much thought. As my blog continues to grow with visitors, subscribers and comments, I now understand the need for a Comment Policy. Like many blogs, comments here are strictly moderated. The idea of a Comment Policy came up with my article, "Chains That Bind", where I discussed my personal experience of having been born and raised into the Jehovah's Witness "religion" and my decision to leave the religion in 1995. The article listed 101 True Beliefs and Practices of Jehovah's Witnesses, that some readers took exception to. "Denise", a current Jehovah's Witness, was quite irate in her comment, lashing out at me for having posted the list, subsequently returning a month later to find that I had not published her comment. I decided to allow her second diatribe, and responded in kind....

5 Questions About Telling It Like It Is
2007-11-12 23:55:00
It appears as though I've been shot by a 357 magnum meme. Here I was, just minding my own business, building stumble upon friends and such, and suddenly the shot rang out and Boom! Right between the eyes with a meme! The devilish culprit is none other than Maurice, from Cayman Host, who did an excellent job answering the five questions, after being shot himself by Josh Spaulding. Will you boys please put the guns away?! Well anyway, this is me in the picture, my mugshot of choice, that I used to hook my husband almost five years ago after being divorced for ten years. If you don't know already, my name is Lin and I'm the sole author of "Telling It Like It Is".1). How Long Have You Been Blogging?I've been blogging online for almost two years now, although I've been writing articles for a number of years on paper, kept safely secured in my garage. Blogging is presently a Part-Time venture of mine, balanced between my Full-Time job as a Registered Dental Assistant/Office Manager...
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Tips To Surviving The Dating Minefield
2007-11-11 22:30:00
Dating can be a fun and exciting time in your life, with hopes of meeting your special someone, building a family together, and spend the rest of your life in marital bliss. Dating can also be disappointing and downright dangerous, much like trying to safely walk through a minefield with nary a scratch. While I have previously written articles about online dating, sharing a few personal dating experiences might help you to better understand the magnitude of protecting yourself in this rather crazy world. First let me emphasize that it matters not where you meet someone; at a club, your job, grocery store, church, or local library. What does matter is the importance of paying utmost attention to what is going on around you, using what some refer to as your "intuition". Knowing when it's time to walk away, or perhaps even run away, can make all the difference in the world. Ignoring that little voice in back of your mind, informing you that "something just doesn't feel right", can ea...
More About: Dating , Tips , Vivi , Dati

My Blogger Christmas Wish List
2007-11-10 06:41:00
Radio stations have begun playing Christmas music around the clock already. I personally prefer for them to wait until right after Thanksgiving, due to the fact that by the time Christmas actually arrives, I'm ready to bang my head against the wall from non-stop holiday jingles. I've been fortunate enough to avoid the bombardment of Christmas commercialism running rampant in the local malls and shops, since I do the great majority of my shopping online. No crowds, no screaming children, none of the problems trying to find parking; simple and easy. My children have been sending me text messages from Chicago, where they attend college, wondering what I might like for Christmas this year. As sweet and endearing as that is, I can't think of one thing that I want or need for myself. It's not that I couldn't come up with something, a gadget of some sort, but I don't need anything. This year's Christmas is going to be different than in years past, mostly due to the difficulties asso...
More About: Blogger , List

The Spaghetti Lesson On Cheating Men
2007-11-10 02:52:00
For several years a man was having an affair with an Italian woman. One night she confided in him that she was pregnant.Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he paid her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child.If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. She agreed but asked how he would know when the baby was born.To keep it discrete he told her to simply mail him a postcard and write "Spaghetti " on the back. He would then arrange for the child support payments to begin.One day 8 months later he came home to his confused wife. "Honey", she said, "you received a very strange post card today.""Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later," he said.The wife obeyed and watched as her husband read the card, turned white and fainted.On the card was written, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Three with meatballs; two without.Send extra sauce!If you've enjo...
More About: Cheating , Lesson

Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness - Count Me Out
2007-11-08 01:00:00
While the internet is buzzing with the upcoming "Bloggers Unit e in Acts of Kindness ", scheduled for 12-17-07, I've made the personal decision not to participate. Discussions began amongst BlogCatalog bloggers, trying to make a decision about what bloggers should unite and blog about this time, in regards to a specific social cause. Ideas and suggestions were exchanged, ultimately leading to the decision for all to perform "acts of kindness" towards others offline, and then blog about it on December 17th of this year. I had participated in "Bloggers Unite Against Abuse" not long ago, and that was something I felt very comfortable doing, having had past experiences of abuse and a desire to bring awareness to the issue. This latest blogging effort doesn't feel right deep down in my heart and soul. The theme of "Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness" is explained this way:The Acts of Kindness theme aims at putting a human face on the bloggers responsible for so much good in the world. Th...
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Blogging Zoom Launches New Social Networking Site For Bloggers
2007-11-06 01:30:00
Quite by chance I stumbled upon Courtney Tuttle's blog, where he and his buddy Vic Frangui have just launched the social networking site Blogging Zoom. As I read the details of what this new social networking site is about, I became very impressed. Some reviewers are comparing it to Digg and Reddit, but that remains to be seen, in my opinion. If you have all the traffic you need, this post isn’t for you. If you have no interest in banding together for the greater good of everyone, please close the window now because this post is 100% about making a truly united effort to make blogging better for every person involved in it. And, it's completely FREE. Here is how Courtney Tuttle describes what this new venture is designed to do:1. Give bloggers the opportunity to submit every post written to a place where they can benefit from professional SEO expertise. For those of you that struggle to get search traffic, this alone can help you to grow exponentially. This entire system will be...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Site

Blogger Versus Wordpress-To Move Or Not To Move?
2007-11-04 17:19:00
I have pondered this question for quite some time, whether to move my blog from Blogger over to WordPress, or leave it where it is. I've received several emails and comments recently suggesting I do the switch, adding that doing so would bring several advantages, especially in regards to "respectability" and "authority". Do you believe that to be true? Do bloggers using Blogger.com as their host receive less respect and authority as WordPress bloggers? I'd really like to know your opinion. As the picture image suggests, the idea of moving to WordPress intimidates me immensely. It isn't that I'm opposed to moving my blog to a WordPress blog, it's simply that I don't understand the so-called "simple instructions". All the included terminologies make no sense to me whatsoever. I already own my domain name, I simply have it hosted on Blogger rather than one of the other hosting companies with what I refer to as "control panels" that I know nothing about. Does that mean my blog lac...
More About: Wordpress , Versus , Move

Technorati Favorites Exchange - Interactive Experiment
2007-11-01 22:54:00
Anyone who has a blog understands the importance of building traffic, return visits, comments and subscribed readership. I happened to bump into a Maki's "Ultimate Technorati Favorites Exchange ", and was quite impressed with the concept, and decided to participate and pass it along to you as well. I'm not going to simply repeat what Maki has to say about the benefits of Technorati, because it's definitely worth your time to read the post yourself. Not having a complete understanding myself of the inner workings of Technorati, I greatly appreciated this quote:Why the emphasis on Technorati? Simply because Technorati is a blog search engine, content aggregator, social website and ranking system which attracts a large number of bloggers, who are exactly the type of audience or readers I want for Dosh Dosh.I was also impressed with the subsequent "Final Traffic and Analysis Report" provided as proof that it worked out quite well for Maki.Would You Like To Participate In This Experime...
More About: Interactive , Experiment

Overcoming Holiday Depression
2007-10-30 18:00:00
The holiday season is once again approaching, bringing excitement and merriment to many. The stores are laden with Christmas trees, Christmas decorations of all sorts, the aisles stocked full of the latest and greatest toys, gifts and gadgets for early shoppers. Children and adults alike are making up their Christmas wish-lists, hoping that Santa and his Elves will deliver them all, and on time. The Internet is abuzz with online shoppers searching for the best sales, deals and steals, comfortably waiting in their homes for the packages to arrive in the mail for wrapping. Television stations are set and ready to go, already aligned with seasonal shows and movies, such as Jimmy Stewart's "It's A Wonderful Life" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". For others, the coming of the holiday season brings anxiety, sadness and depression. Do you find yourself becoming depressed over the holiday season? Do you begin to get that feeling of utter dread swelling in the pit of your stomach? Does you...
More About: Holiday , Depression

Earn Money Online By Submitting Your Best Work
2007-10-29 16:16:00
When I first began this blog almost two years ago, it was initially a means to catalog my personal experiences, viewpoints and opinions, and an occasional rant. Basically, a journal of sorts. Having had a difficult upbringing, involving abuses of all kinds, writing about my childhood experiences as well as adult experiences, has helped me personally heal from the past in many ways. I initially did not join any social networking groups in an attempt to bring broad awareness of my writings, nor did I track traffic hits or concern myself with Google rankings, keywords and the like. On occasion I would receive an email notifying me that someone had posted a comment on a previous story I'd written and forgot about, but those were rare. I was writing for myself, to myself, not fully realizing the likelihood that someone would do a search on the Internet and actually click on one of my posts in search results. The more I write about personal experiences, the more I find the value it bri...
More About: Money , Earn Money , Work , Earn , Online

Blogging Mistakes I Have Made
2007-10-28 14:23:00
Improving blogging abilities and techniques takes some effort, and when mistakes are made, learn from them and move on. A blogging mistake I recently made was when I changed my template to the current layout. I had written what I believe to be an informative post on "Top 10 Tips To Become A ProBlogger", and from checking my hit stats for the day, I had nearly a thousand hits for that day. I was initially quite pleased with myself, but learned the next day that I had some coding errors for my layout, so anyone who uses Firefox as their browser, saw everything on my blog page bunched up on the left column. To say that I was upset with myself would be an understatement. I was horrified, and thankful at the same time that a fellow blogger, and Firefox user, informed me of the problem. I have since fixed the template problem, but all those hits received for that one post was wasted, at least for Firefox users. I highly recommend using both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, to make...
More About: Blogging , Made , Stakes , Mista

You May Be Wrong But You Maybe Write
2007-10-25 20:07:00
Anyone who has visited my blog has likely seen my very visible motto, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind, don't matter and those who matter, don't mind." I believe in being outspoken, "telling it like it is", without fear that someone won't like what I have to say, or how I say it. Due to the increasing number of subscribers to my blog, I can only ascertain that I must be doing something right. In order to bring visitors and subscribed readers better content, I spend a lot of time learning all I can about everything having to do with blogging, Google ranking, SEO, building traffic, and all the benefits of social networking, just to name a few. One of my favorite networking tools has been Stumbling, as I have stumbled across some amazing blogs, with content that is helpful and is of interest to me. However, I continue to be surprised by the number of blogs that require anyone interested in commenting to have to log into their blog. Nope, not gonna do it....
More About: Write , Wrong

Find True Love Online - Find Your Better Half
2007-10-24 21:22:00
Millions of singles from all over the world are currently using the internet to meet other people, in the hopes of finding true love. When it comes to finding a new romantic partner, it is most definitely possible to find your "significant other" using an online dating service. In years past, relationships were largely developed through chance encounters, meeting through friends, church groups, and even the library. Online dating has changed dramatically over the years, with many featuring romantic opportunities with people encompassing all walks of life, financial status, age ranges, religious affiliation, ethnicities, race, geographic locations, and sexual preference. The advantages of online dating services far outweigh the chances of meeting someone special at a bar, restaurant or grocery store check-out line. Are you ready to find your "someone special"? You have come to the right place! Online dating services consist of all types of people, from all walks of life, and it's fu...
More About: Love , Find , True , True Love

Five Safety Tips Of Online Dating
2007-10-22 23:07:00
While there are many ways to meet your future mate, online dating has proven to be very successful for couples searching for a committed relationship. Regardless of where you actually meet someone, perhaps in a library, grocery store, or church, there are important precautions to take to remain safe. While many, if not most, online dating services are vigilant to review profiles created by members, it is important to remember that your safety is primarily in your own hands. Therefore, it is vital to not rely solely on dating sites promising "compatibility testing", that we often hear about on various radio stations and television commercials. The best technique for dating safely, online and off-line, is to always be on your guard, realizing the everyone you correspond with is a potential threat. Although there is a feeling of excitement and anticipation when meeting a person for the first time, your dating safety begins with educating yourself in order to have the best dating exper...
More About: Safety , Dating , Online Dating , Tips , Online

Do Follow - Do You Follow?
2007-10-21 17:10:00
We all know (or at least should know) the importance of creating great content for readers, as well as building relationships with other niche bloggers. Building traffic to our blogs, and leaving quality comments on other blogs cannot be over-emphasized. How do we find blogs that are worth the effort, and will bring the greatest benefit? Ramona, from wtricks.com, has written some great tips on the subject, "What Blogs Should We Comment On?", that I highly recommend you take under careful consideration. Ramona outlines 5 important points in choosing what blogs we should comment on.One area Ramona discusses is that of "You Comment, I Follow". Many blogs, like our blog, have removed the default "nofollow" attribute from their blogs, so that your comments bring you traffic and "good" inbound links. You will often find an image, perhaps like the one in this post, prominently displayed on the blog sites you visit.If you'd like to see an extensive list of "DoFollow" blogs, "Tricia's Musi...

Top 10 Tips To Become A ProBlogger
2007-10-18 03:47:00
For some, the ability to write well comes quite naturally, with words that flow with relative ease across the page, while others continuously struggle to express their views in a logical and coherent manner. I've received quite a few commendations from readers in recent months, mentioning their appreciation of my "writing style". Therefore, I felt it was only fair that I share the writing tips I've learned over the years, and hopefully these will be of help to you in your writing endeavors. Do you have a pen and paper handy?Top 10 Tips To Become A Pro Blogger:1) Write It Down - Always, always, have pen and paper readily available, no matter where you are. Yes, that can include the bathroom. Any time you have an epiphany, perhaps a topic to write about, or simply a catchy sentence you want to include in a post, write it down. Doing so helps eliminate "writer's block", or forgetting what you were sure you'd remember, but also helps create an outline you can expound on in your post...

You Just Can't Please Everyone - A Rant
2007-10-18 02:00:00
I have spent the last three days devouring search engine results in an attempt to find, once and for all, a blogger template that suits my blog and my style. Far be it from me to criticize the designers of many of the blog templates available, as there are many very Ahem...talented template designers, but I have yet to find even one that I might remotely contemplate using for this blog. It is for that reason that I have continued to use the current layout, albeit with many tweaks and tricks that I have learned and implemented. I make no apologies for the fact that I am simply not your typical "girly girl" writer, and have zero interest in a template laden with "girly" color combinations and pink nonsense. I also have no desire to dissuade current and future readers of this blog from returning due to the likely trauma to their cornea membranes. That being said, I must succumb and admit that if there was one thing that could persuade me to become a Wordpress user, it is strictly due t...
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I'm A "Break Out Blogger" - First Award!
2007-10-15 04:16:00
While browsing around on one of my favorites blogs, AdSense Tracker, I was suddenly taken aback by one of her posts dated September 30th, where she mentions having received the prestigious blogger award called "Break Out Blogger ". I felt so proud of her receiving this award (as she definitely deserves it) that I was anxious to finish reading her post so I could comment and congratulate her. But then, towards the end of the post, she mentions a couple of blogs that she was bestowing the award to, and guess who she included?! Yep, Telling It Like It Is! How cool is that?! I actually did a double-take and read the sentence again just to be sure (can't let my head get too swollen you see), but sure enough, I understood right. Wow!The Break Out Blogger award was developed by Bob of Bobbarama and is descibed by him this way:This award casts a spotlight on bloggers who are just beginning to draw lots of attention — the equivalent of a song with a bullet on Billboard’s Top 100 chart. L...
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What Does Your "About Me" Say About You?
2007-10-14 19:11:00
I've discussed in a previous article my ongoing goal of reading and commenting on at least 8 other blogs every day, and the benefits received from doing so. I've also mentioned that it is often difficult for me to find blogs that have content that interests me that would cause me to want to comment. One thing that perturbs me while visiting these blogs is the lack of an "About Me" profile, or one that lacks any real information about the author. Personally speaking, I like to know who I'm reading, with an actual picture of the author, not a silly icon image. Although anyone beginning a blog with Blogger is able to create an "About Me" profile, often times displayed prominently in the upper right or left hand corner, I'm often disappointed once I click on the link to learn more about the author. Surprisingly enough, I find this to be the case as well with many Wordpress users. Many bloggers either have very little real information about Who they are, What caused them to begin blo...

When You Comment I Reply - Join The Movement
2007-10-13 14:00:00
Many bloggers have posted articles on the question of: Why don't many visitors post comments? Then again, some bloggers aren't courteous enough to respond to comments they DO receive. The iReply Movement was started in an effort to encourage bloggers and visitors to comment, with the understanding that the gesture will be returned in kind. Why does this matter? For one thing, if you're blogging at all, and your blog isn't set to Private, then it makes sense that you would appreciate some blog traffic to whatever you write about. You may also have joined various social networking sites in an attempt to create greater readership, but what good is that if you don't get comments from visitors, or worse yet, you don't reply to their comments? Replying to comments received, and returning the favor on their blog, is a great way of thanking your readers and it helps with developing a sense of community among bloggers. Have you ever done something nice for someone, or bought someone a ...
More About: Join , Comment

Increase Your Technorati Page Rank And Google Rank With Viral Linking
2007-10-13 01:47:00
While browsing other blogs to fulfill my daily goal of commenting on at least 8 blogs, I kept running across topics discussing the benefits of Viral Linking, and how it is claimed to help Increase Technorati Page Rank as well as Google Page Rank. Being a relatively new blogger, I'm much like a sponge soaking up every bit of information that could help bring traffic and authority to my blog. So, we're going to participate in a little tag game of Viral Linking, and let's see how it goes. And if for no other reason, this list will give you a good headstart on setting your own goal on commenting on other blogs. All you need to do is copy the A-Z blog links below, make a post on your own blog (like this one you're reading), and replace the appropriate link with your own blog link. For example, in the "T" link location is my blog link for "Telling It Like It Is". Get it? Okay, so here's the link list:A About Interesting Stuff : A blog collection of interesting stuff.B Blogger, Blog, ...