Working with my blogging clients and building my custom home have left little time for blogging on Win with 1. My list of upcoming blogs has been put on the back burner. Today, however, I read about a simple challenge that was too good to pass up. Darren Rowse just sent out a 7 link blogging challenge that is a good exercise for any blogger.

Rowse suggests creating a sneeze page (a page that sends people in different directions deep within your blog) consisting of a list post, linking to the following pages:

• Your first post
• A post you enjoyed writing the most
• A post which had a great discussion
• A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written
• Your most helpful post
• A post with a title that you are proud of
• A post that you wish more people had read

Below is my version of the 7 Link Challenge. I hope you enjoy reading these posts.

Win with 1 to Launch November 2009

Although I created my first web page in 1994, I didn’t start officially blogging until January 1, 2003. (Yes, go ahead, call me a pioneer.) I have no idea what my first post was. My first post on this blog, however, is easier to identify. It was the post the announced my new blogging service, Win with 1.

Blogging Goals for 2010 and Beyond

I’m a goal setting fanatic. I have a massive goal setting system; I even give workshops on goal setting. So writing up a post about blogging goals was a natural. And because it’s a topic I’m passionate about, writing it was a pleasure.

This blog was followed closely by 10 Better Blogging Tips. I love the form and organization of list posts. And the goal-related topic put it squarely into my favorite niche.

Pretty Link Pro is My Favorite WordPress Plugin

I don’t get a ton of reader commenting on this blog. (I welcome more. Hint, hint!) But I do get a fair amount of private questions. Maybe people are afraid to look uneducated or to get negative feedback publicly. In any case, one of the better discussions was about Pretty Link Pro. I suspect that’s because it’s provides a very useful set of tools for bloggers and lots of people know about it.

What’s odd is that, while this post got one of the higher comment counts, it also got one of the lower vote counts. Feel free to vote it up if you like it.

WordPress SEO

Still my all-time favorite SEO post on the web, “The Definitive Guide to Higher Ranking for Your Blog” is a comprehensive treasure trove of information. I wish I had written it. I wish I knew enough to have written it. Yoast is one of my internet idols. Read this. Now.

6 Steps to Startup with WordPress: The Guide for the Wannabe Blogger

Maybe this is a copout, but my most helpful post on this blog isn’t really on this blog at all. Last winter I was paid to write a post — a really long post — on the blogging topic of my choosing. Given that my expertise is in setting up WordPress blogs, that’s what I wrote about. The post on my blog, however, is really just an little intro and link to the full blog post. Still, it’s probably the most in-depth single post I’ve ever written.

Write Like a Pubescent Boy in a Locker Room: Fart Blogging

Most of my post titles are fairly clinical. Rather than be cute and clever, I want to be clear about the information provided. But once in a while the topic lends itself to something a bit snappier. Often as not, it’s when I’ve got my dander up about something.

That was the case when I wrote Fart Blogging. I like the title (even though I don’t let my kids use the word “fart” — yes, it’s true) and — even though I find the post a bit disjointed, I like the post, too. Read it!

Business Ethics: Helping Others is Good All the Way Around

Of all the (currently 52) posts published on this blog, this is the post I wish more people had read. Sadly, ethics isn’t the most exciting topic to many, but it’s so needed in our society.

Few seem to step back from demanding to have what they want to think through the logical consequences of the demand. “What if everyone did what I’m doing? What if everyone demanded to have what I think I should have?” But that is the imperative question.

If we all would just move back to our principled center, all would benefit. I wish more people understood that basic truth.

Day #12 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a bit of an irritation to me. I’m almost obsessive about organization. I have a very full life and the only way I know to do all I want to do is to be scheduled and disciplined.

Blogging is one of the few areas of my life that is rather free form. I blog when I have something to say and I blog about whatever I feel compelled to share. So the idea of scheduling and calendaring the one area of my life that is driven by whim isn’t very appealing.

While I don’t think the exercise can hurt, I’m not sure the actual use of an editorial calendar will necessarily benefit either my writing or my blogs. So, while I remain uncommitted about following the resulting schedule, I decided to create a possible editorial calendar for Pix2Brix to see what I learn.

As I fussed about this editorial calendar, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to align my calendar with the structure of categories I created when doing the post ideas assignment. Rather than create a schedule blocking in particular posts or post styles, I could create a general calendar assigning which category I should be writing in on a given day. This kind of calendar will have the added benefit of making the blog more well-rounded, by pushing me to write in the categories that I’m less likely to focus on.

Pix2Brix Editorial Schedule

As I said, I’m not completely committed to this schedule, but I’ll use it as a general outline when I don’t have a strong writing preference. This blog is usually updated two to three times per week, not every day. So this may just end up being a guideline for the days I choose to write.

I tried to work the table around the things I tend to be focusing on any given day. And since I usually have more discretionary time on Saturdays, I’ve double up two categories on that day. It’s likely that I’l choose one or the other, but sometimes I may do both.

The schedule also leads to the possibility of prewriting posts for a given category and then scheduling them to publish on the assigned day. That’s something I’ll have to think more about.

I recommend this assignment to you. Just working through it will get you thinking about how best to add great content to your blog.

Keeping up a blog requires a lot of writing. Read that: A. LOT. OF. WRITING. If you intend to become a professional blogger, get used to that idea. You’re going to spend a bunch of time over the next few years hunched over a keyboard, pounding out your thoughts and dreams and innermost feelings and deepest, darkest secrets. Accept it. Cherish it. Embrace it. That’s just part of the deal.

In that light, this assignment seems simple enough. It is to think of ten future post ideas. It’s designed to help bloggers who can’t think of anything to write. But honestly, this notion baffles me. I’m not a blogger because I have some romantic notion about making money online in my pajamas. I’m a blogger because there are so many things to share — and blogging is an excellent way to reach a lot of people. If I had trouble thinking of something to write about, I wouldn’t be blogging. I’d be doing whatever it was my mind couldn’t wait to get back to.

In spite of the fact that I’ve got a long list of drafts waiting for completion — and more post ideas floating around in my head — I’m going to keep my commitment to work through the every day of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog program. And I’m going to try to do it from scratch — without looking at the long list of future posts I already have.

As usual, with today’s challenge Rowse doesn’t disappoint. Even on such a simple subject, he packs information and helpful tips into his suggestions. The assignment is to write down the five most recent posts and extend each one in to one or more new posts. Rather than starting over every time you write, this teaches you to go further on a particular topic.

While my lifehacking blog isn’t new, I changed the blog niche from a construction blog to a life-change/self-improvement blog. (You can see I’m still struggling a bit with a succinct blog description.) Because of this recent development — and because I don’t really want to “extend” posts like “patio concrete poured” — I’m going to use Rowse’s alternative assignment. This variation starts with the blog’s categories and explore post titles that will anchor those catgories.

I’ve been reorganizing the blog categories to align with the goal areas I teach at conventions and conferences. I’ll create at least one future post idea in each of those categories and expand at least one of those post ideas into a deeper level of posts.

Family & Relationships

• How to Live Happily Ever After
• Talk to Your Teens
• Family Night Fun
• Teen Parties
• Entertaining Adults the Easy Way
• Birthday Party Ideas
  • Olympic Party
  • Rock Star Party
  • Construction Party
  • Pirate Party
  • Candyland Party
  • Camping Party
  • Circle Party
  • Doll Party

Spirituality & Character

• Making Family Scripture Reading Fun
• Teaching Children to Tell the Truth
• How to Prevent Bullying
• Self-Reliance: A Disappearing Value
• Morality Without God
• Discriminate is Not a Bad Word

Health & Fitness

• One Year of Healthy Family Menus
• The Busy Mom’s Fitness Plan
  • The Busy Mom’s Exercise Plan
  • The Busy Mom’s Nutrition Plan
  • The Busy Mom’s Sleeping Plan

Education & Training

• Benefits of Informal Education
• Self-Made Scholar

Financial & Career

• Work from Home
• The Easy Debt Free Plan
• Teaching Children Financial Responsibility
• Paying Your Own Way Through College

Home & Organization

• Streamline Your Laundry Room
• 6 Systems of Organization
• Creating  Home Maintenance Plan
• 10 Best Homemaking Books
• 1 Year Emergency Food Plan
• Building a Backyard Swimming Pool
  • Safety for the Home Swimming Pools
  • Great Swimming Pool Accessories
  • Keeping Your Home Swimming Pool Clean

Service & Philanthropy

• Online Political Activism
• Setting Up a Non-Profit Organization
• Neighborhood Phanton
• Good Deeds Jar
• Family Humanitarian Projects
• The Constitution: A Guide for Joe the Plumber, Barrack Obama, and Other Regular Guys

Interest & Recreation

• Family Camping Checklist
• Traveling with Children on a Budget
• How to Buy the Perfect Travel Trailer
• Loom Hats

Stop! I could spend all day at this. Planning can sometimes be more interesting than actually doing! But the point is to get the list prepared to expedite the writing.

Now I’ve got way more than ten future post ideas that appeal to me (to add to the dozens already drafted on the blog back end). And I think appeal is a key in blogging success. All of those posts feature topics I’m very interested in researching and writing about. Writing won’t be a chore. Rather, I’ll look forward to it.

Create your blog post ideas list today!

For years I’ve used numerous Google services, but until I read Day 10 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, I didn’t know much about Google Alerts. It’s another great internet productivity tool with a variety of uses.

Google Alerts allows you to get either a feed in your blog reader or an email in your inbox whenever Google locates  your chosen keyword(s). You can choose to search in the news, on blogs, in videos, or a number of other places on the web.

Since I already use Google Reader, completing this assignment was easy and convenient. Rather than set up alerts to fill my inbox (spam is already doing a great job of this, thank you), I chose to subscribe to feeds.

I set up a number of alerts. Most were keywords in my blog niche. In addition I added a few “vanity” alerts, that will notify me of any references to my name or blog names/URLs. It’s a bit like the old celebrity clipping services, but fast and free.

As I monitor these feeds, they will need to be modified to give me the info I really want and need. Much like refining a google search, I’ll need to hone in on the specific information that will be helpful to me and useful to my readers.

I also looked into a few of the other alerts suggested — Technorati and Twitter alerts — but chose not to use them at this time. I’ll focus on Google Alerts and research the others  more if either of those services seems helpful.

If no one reads your blog, does it really exist?

Content is essential for a quality blog. But all the content in the world won’t get you anywhere if you don’t get a reasonable stream of traffic. There are many valid and valuable ways to market a blog. One way is by actively connecting with other through social networking.

Below I’ll describe the social networks, forum, and websites I currently frequent in my blogging ventures specifically for the lifehacks blog. I’ll tell you what I’m currently doing and what I could do better from a marketing standpoint.

FaceBook

Friend me on FaceBook

After months of getting (and ignoring) those annoying “be my friend” emails from FaceBook on behalf of real world friends, I finally joined. My sister sent me the invite and, well, how can you deny your own sister the joy of your company?

Of course, a couple of months later — after I had amassed mounds of true, kindred-spirit friends — she quit. But that’s another story.

Anyway, I love FaceBook. In spite of the fact that my college-aged kids still assert that it’s not for “old people,” they have all deigned to include me on their friends lists. I try not to overrun their walls with hugs and kisses and stories of their naked backsides from their diaper days. But still, lots of their friends, friend me! Hah. I am that cool.

I’ve reconnected with so many people through other friends. Just a couple of weeks ago a girl I attended kindergarten, first, and second grade with found me. Yesterday she posted our class photos from those years. So much fun to laugh at our prepubescent pain and chubbiness and taunting and bullying and…OK, not so much fun, but heart-felt.

But how do I use FaceBook to market my blogs? Because I don’t have a business fan page — and don’t intend to get one —  don’t want to over run my friends with marketing and sales pitches. I use FaceBook in three ways:

1. My blogs are listed on my wall, with links and thumbnail pictures.
2. My blog posts are automatically linked to my wall and, in turn, they show up on all my friends news feeds.
3. The Networked Blogs app is activated (and the widget included on my sites).

To date I’ve only used the Networked Blogs community to bring traffic organically. But I intend to get more involved with the that group and to make further connections.

Twitter

Follow me on Twitter

Twitter is one odd bird. I signed up for Twitter a few months ago and have nearly 1,500 followers. But this is a paradigm I don’t really love. It is to loosely associated for me to make much use of it.

The is the only thing I currently do with Twitter with regards to blog promotion is to have a mini-description of each post automatically updated to my Twitter status, with a link back.

At this time, I don’t intend to do more with Twitter.

BlogEngage

Vote for me on BlogEngage

BlogEngage allows you to submit blog articles bo be reviewed and voted on by the blogging community there. There are a great group of quality bloggers that regularly interact there. As of this writing, I’m the top voter with the highest “karma.” I love the place and really believe in the ideas behind it.

The community is large and growing, but my invitation only. If you would like to join and have a quality blog you’d like considered, post a comment and include a link to your blog in the CommentLuv (only, please!). I’ll check out your site and possibly submit it for approval.

I work this site every day, but I plan to spend even more time commenting on the blogs of other BlogEngage bloggers.

Tribal Blogs

Find me at Tribal Blogs

This is a new community of excellent bloggers started by Jen, a fellow redheaded blogger. (So it must be good,right?). While it’s open to all, most of the members seem to be female. There is a real sense of community among mommy bloggers and this blogging network has that feel.

I joined this community only a couple of weeks ago and I’m still feeling my way around, but I received an immediate, warm welcome.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to look around more, make some friends, and check out some blogs.

LinkedIn

Link up with me at LinkedIn

While I have joined this social network, I haven’t taken the time to do more than just sign up and accept a few friends requests. While this might prove to be a source of traffic, I’m not sure I have time to add this to my list of online activities. If I have some indication that it will be worth the time, I will look into it more.

Your Favorite Social Networking Sites?

What are your favorite sites for interacting with others and promoting your blog? Share some of your experiences with blog promotion!

The 31DBBB day #8 task was an easy one to check off my to do list. The day #9 task is another simple assignment. I may make it to double digits yet!

Today I’m supposed to sign up for a forum that’s related to my site and start participating. I’ve been active in online forums since they were invented, so I fully intended follow the alternate assignment of spending 10–15 minutes in a forum I’m already part of. But when I happened upon a new forum that is a good fit for my life change blog — completely accidentally — I decided to join up after all. Then I spent about 20 minutes reading and posting.

One of the key benefits of forum posting comes when other participants can easily find you and your blog from your posts. So once registered, I immediately set up a a profile and signature. Whenever I post, links to my sites show up at the bottom of my comment.

I appreciate having some simple tips thrown in the challenge along the way. Finally feel like I’m making a dent in the program.

My latest project in the 31DBBB, was to read 27 expert blog posts. The assigned reading included a post by Seth Godin titled, “How to send a personal email.” Using his tip list, I’ve created the corollary, explaining how to alienate your readers in a few, simple steps.

Feel free to make additions in the comments!

1. Send identical emails to enormous mailing lists.
2. Copy and paste all you can. If you inadvertently mess up and call someone the wrong name, don’t worry, no one will notice.
3. The salutation makes no difference. Use whatever your program default is. Even it is says, “My darling and alluring reader.” We’re all friends here.
4. Don’t worry about formatting in your salutation. That just wastes time. Just merge the thing and be done with it. The important thing is to get that email sent.
5. Send lots of HTML and images. You need to look like a professional emailer.
6. Boca Raton, Florida (WWO) March 19, 2010 — Win with 1 published their communication advice this morning. “Make your email look like a press release,” said AM Smith, owner and professional blogger.
7. The longer the better. If you have important information to extend to readers — and I know you do — you want to make sure that they don’t miss a single detail. Minutia is crucial. Fill your email with everything you can think of to keep the reader on task with the email as long as you possibly can. If you can’t think of something interesting or personal to write, just keep on going. Eventually you will happen across something worth reading. And besides, these people have nothing better to do.
8. Emailing is time consuming and you have more important things to worry about. Don’t bother unless you need something. Like money.
9. Never include contact information. Seriously, do you want these people to interrupt your life?
10. Always mark your emails triple-red-flag, read-me-this-second-or-the-economy-will-fail urgent. You are the master.
11. Misleading headlines are only trumped by those that are cute as a bug. Straight talk is boring.
12. If your first email doesn’t get the results you want, just send another.
13. Ignore the CAN-SPAM Act. We’re about results, people.
14. If you have access to an email, it’s yours to do with as you please. Send, send, send!

Day #6 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge held a barrier I didn’t expect. The assignment was to read some of the best blogging advice ever written. I am the quintessential non-fiction consumer and I love blogging. This should be easy. But it wasn’t.

When I was in college, I met a woman who collected pigs. Later I met a woman who collected roosters. The idea of collecting something intrigued me and sounded fun — but I couldn’t think of anything I liked enough to collect other than gold jewelry, and that was an expensive proposition.

Eventually I came up with the idea of collecting watches. It was jewelry on the cheap. (Obviously I wasn’t going for a Rolodex collection.) I had dressy watches and casual watches. Sporty watches and elegant watches. I was on my way to having a watch for every holiday and even had a political watch (a Bill Clinton watch that ran backwards — and I wore it enough that I got used to reading it).

About a year into my new hobby the first watch battery died. Followed by another and another. And another. It was then I realized watch collecting was going to be a high maintenance hobby. I ditched it and began looking for another.

A number of months later — before the advent of Amazon —Sam and I left a bookstore laden with over $600 worth of books. He looked at me and said, “Honey, we collect books.”

Of course.

All that lead up is to let you know that I love reading. I mean, I really love reading. Especially technical books, business books, self-help books, parenting books, education books, religious books, philosophy books. I love just about any non-fiction book every printed and a few fiction works as well.

Give me a leather chair by a fire and a cup of steaming cocoa (and some peace and quiet) and there’s just about nowhere I’d rather be than there. With a great book that is going to change my life.

But reading in front of the computer screen? Not so much.

So although I was really looking forward to getting the information from all 27 (!) of these jam-packed articles that Rowse had assigned — I was not really looking forward to spending hours in front of the screen. I can’t read them from my Kindle. And the iPad isn’t out yet. So I suffered through it. Wah wah. Poor me.

Once I got over the resistance, I was well-rewarded. This is a grand collection of blogging information and ideas from the likes of Jeremy Shoemake, Maki, Chris Brogan, and others. And this addresses one of my pet issues. If you’re trying to find a way to be an ultra-successful blogger, find out from those who already are, not from someone who started blogging a year (or two) ago and really, really, really wants to make a lot of money (from you).

Of all the blog posts, the most helpful were those by Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his books for years. (My favorites are: The Dip and Small is the New Big. He’s genius at innovative thinking, which puts him ahead of the curve.

As much as I love to read, I had to be nudged into this assignment because the venue isn’t my favorite. But trust me on this, new blogger or seasoned, you’ll learn a lot. This is a gold mine of blogging goodness. It’s worth every minute.

The day 6 challenge in my 31 Days to Build a Better Blog quest is to email a new reader with a personal message. After pounding out 1,277 words on the last challenge to analyze a top blog in your niche, this was a welcome assignment!

The bonus assignment has two parts:

1. If the reader left a link to their blog, click through and comment on an interesting post on their blog.
2. Respond to their comment on your blog.

I’d like to give one caveat to item number one. I never leave comments just for the sake of some artificial commenting quota I have set. When I leave a comment it is because I sincerely enjoyed a post, found it helpful, or have something I’d like to ask or address. I appreciate it when the owner clicks through my name link and comments back. But it drives me nuts when their comment consists of:

Cool blog. Thanks for commenting on my [great, amazing] site. Come back soon.

Seriously?

Anyway, this assignment was simple. I opened up the comments section and popped off a few quick emails to those commenting, some new and some loyal commenters.

I’ve been doing the bonus items for some time — not on every comment, of course, but when something interesting stuck out. I’ll make a note to continue this more conscientiously.

Day #4 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge is all about learning from the success of similar sites.

Identify a Successful Blog in Your Niche

On day #1 of the 31DBBB, I struggled mightily to identify the new niche for my life change blog. I came up with an idea, but I’m still mulling over the best way to express it.

Because of this uncertainty, finding another blog in the mystery niche was something of a challenge. Today I finally settled on a large, group blog with a pagerank of 6 that publishes posts similar in nature to the new direction of my blog.

Analyze Another Blog in Your Niche

Content:

What topics are they covering?

General self-help, life improvement, productivity, lifestyle.

What topics are they ignoring?

The site is a clear “make your life better” site, but they focus only on certain aspects of life improvement, with sort of a business/productivity angle.

When I work on  personal improvement — and when I teach it at seminars — I like to categorize my efforts into specific life areas that, when working together, make for a high quality of life. Many of these essentials are missing on this site.

What voice/style do they post in?

While there are many authors, the general voice is first person, conversational, with a slight professional tone.

How often are they posting?

Approximately every other day. Never more than one per day.

What level are they pitching their posts at?

The posts are general interest, mostly appealing to someone struggling with the particular aspect being discussed. Some of the concepts are simple (appealing to a broad audience and those without much life experience) and others complex (targeted toward those with more general competency).

Reader Engagement:

What topics generate most conversation?

This is an area of blogging that is sometimes baffling to me. And this blog analysis is no exception. I can’t discern any pattern that would determine which topics garner the most comments. (Other than the massive response to contests/giveaways.)

While this may seem like a “duh” moment, maybe it’s worth noting that the posts that get the most comments are those that not only give info, but that compel others to reply. I don’t necessarily mean those that ask direct questions of readers (although sometimes that technique works), but those that make people want to speak up, give input, be heard. This desire may come out of enthusiasm, passion, loyalty, etc.

What styles of posts seem to connect with readers best?

This question seems to fit with the previous. Those that “connect” tend to be those that garner comments — at least that’s the only indicator I have of connectedness. Try as I might, I couldn’t see many connections. Often two very similar posts had wildly different responses. I considered many factors and could see no patterns:

• How to posts
• List posts
• Timely posts
• First post on a topic
• Buzzwords in title
• Clever titles

I have found the same things on my own blogs for the past 7+ years. Some posts that I think are really appealing bring almost no comment. And some that were near throwaways, or even some lacking in much substance, have been big hits with regard to traffic and comment generation.

Apparently either there a great deal more randomness (and luck) involved in this than we’d like to think, or I just need to analyze this better to find the patterns I’m missing. I’ll keep watching and see if anything sticks out.

What questions are readers asking in comments?

Mostly practical questions to clarify information in the posts or further implement the ideas.

Note: A tip for those of you following and working on the 31DBBB on your own blog: An easy way to find commenter questions is to scroll down to the comments and search the page for question marks.

What complaints do you see readers making in comments?

Some that were incomprehensible (possibly comment spam); some that disagreed with the conclusions or advice given in the article.

What tools/mediums is the site using?

Polls asking for input about design and future posts; podcasts; Twitter

Design:

What first impression does their design give?

Clean and neat, but blah and boring.

What have they done well?

The title and URL (the same) are quite clever and descriptive — and brief! Easy to navigate and find things.

What have they done poorly?

The mission of the site isn’t clear. There aren’t a ton of ads, but some of the ads obscure the purpose of the site. Some styling is inconsistent. Design induces yawning.

What Options do they give readers to subscribe?

Feed and email subscriptions.

Monetization:

What advertisers are targeting this blog?

They advertise their own productivity apps and ebooks. They offer advertising, but the current ads appear to be affiliate banners.

What type of affiliate programs are they promoting?

AdSense; FreshBooks.com; Audible.com.

Traffic:

The traffic for this blog tanked last year. From over 300,000 unique visitors to just under 200,000. The low count was last November since which it has made something of a recovery. Of course, “tanked” is a relative term, but a 30% drop in readership is significant.

The site ranks over 6,000 in the USA, but it ranks higher in South Korea. Over 40% of its traffic comes from the US, next is India, which makes sense when you consider the linked economies. Most popular for ages 18–34, no kids, with some college or a college degree and most likely to browse from school. Sounds like a college demographic. And that fits the productivity-centric model.

Since I graduated from college decades ago (ouch!) and I’m just a teeny bit older than this site’s readers, my site would tend to cover the same topic but in a way geared to those in established careers (including stay-at-home moms) and with established families, who want to be productive and are on a quest for self-improvement.

One thing I noted is that the name of this site is part of the site name of a much more popular (and similar) site. My analysis site also uses a less popular domain name extension. That probably is confusing to readers and a cause of lost traffic. (I actually found the other site because I misremembered my research site’s name and typed in the other site!)

Note: When you analyze a site using Alexa, there is a “Related Links” tab that points you to other, similar sites. You may find some surprising and interesting results.

SEO:

Who is linking to this blog?

There are over 4,000 sites linking in. A rather typical mix of social networking sites and personal sites (including blog and forum comments). Also intra-company linking is evident.

What does their source code reveal about how they’ve set up their site?

The site uses WordPress with a custom theme. Meta keywords include: productivity, organization, management, getting things done.

“Getting things done” refers to one of my absolute favorite organizational methods based on David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. His method is one of the things I teach in my organization seminars and something that would be good to write about.

If they have an open or unlocked stats package what can you learn from their stats? What pages are popular? Where does their incoming traffic come from?

After the site name, most popular searches that result in traffic to this site are surprising even though they do point toward increased productivity:

• best firefox plugins
• easy healthy recipes
• greasemonkey scripts

Another popular search is “how to spam”!

Conclusion

As with others, this post has taken some time, but I’ve learned quite a bit and have a much better idea about approach and focus of my life change blog.