I struggled for about a month trying to come up with a new look.  I wanted something more professional and a little less “neon”.

Enter the new theme I finally settled on.

Now I need your opinions.  Do you like it?  Does it seem more professional than my last theme?

Here are a couple of screenshots showing the previous two themes this blog once sported.  Compare them with my new theme, and give me your opinion in the following poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This Post Brought To You By:

But through it all, you have been great and seemed to have stuck it out with me.  My Twitter follower numbers continued to rise, the number of visitors to my blog continued to rise, and a few other online endeavors came into existence.

Among all of this that has happened in what seems like only the blink of an eye, here are the 5 posts in which you all enjoyed the most, and the 5 biggest sources of my traffic for 2009.

My Top 5 Posts of 2009

1. Skype – A More Powerful Social Networking Tool
2. 8 Daily Tasks To Increase Blog Traffic
3. The 5 Biggest Uses Of Google Wave
4. Establishing A Sense Of Security On Your Blog
5. 8 Ways To Make Your Blog Sticky

My Top 5 Traffic Sources Of 2009

1. Direct Traffic
2. StumbleUpon
3. Twitter
4. Google Images
5. Yahoo (organic)

Google organic search was number 7 for traffic sources, if that tells you how the web is changing.

The traffic I got from referrals beat out all other traffic producing methods with a ranking of 61.83%.

This only proves that engaging in conversation and building your community is so much more important than worrying about how well you rank in the search engines (which only produced 9.52% of my traffic for all of 2009).

The Future Of My Blog

In 2008 I built my blog to a level unimaginable by most people in an extremely short time.  In 2009, with all of the life changes, I let the blog coast and slowly build a stronger community, rather than worrying about massive increases in visitors.

And in 2010 I plan on ramping it up once again, and hopefully making this a year to remember with both my blog, and my personal connections and workings with every one of you.

How are you going to make your blog great in 2010?

This Post Brought To You By:

While I’m not extremely impressed with it yet, I can foresee some big uses for Google Wave coming about.

1. Forum Integration

With Google Wave’s ability to imbed Waves into existing websites and allow for comments within each embedded wave, this could be a very awesome change for forums.

Currently, in order to reply to a thread in a forum, you have to register for that forum, type your reply then wait for the page to refresh in order to see it posted.  And if others are posting comments at the same time, you could miss conversation posted while posting your own.

Google Wave allows you to reply to each individual sentence and see all comments and threads as they are typed, in real time.  It will also allow you to read the forum and make comments via your Google Wave account, so you can participate in many different forums from one location.

Forum participation has declined since the creation of blogs, but I think forums will make a huge comeback with the implementation of Google Wave.

2. Blog Integration

Much like forum integration, using Google Wave to imbed your posts onto your blog will allow other Wave users to add to the content (much like a wiki), and hold a conversation dynamically with other blog readers.

This integration could help increase your blog community by allowing you to interact with your readers as they visit your new posts.

The only downside I see to using Google Wave for your blog posts is those who try to add to your content that don’t know anything about the topic. And it could cause less visitors to your actual blog, meaning those advertisements you have will not be seen.

Sponsored Conversation, much like that created through Izea’s new Sponzai, will be the future of making money through your blog when Google Wave starts being implemented.

3. Education Integration

Google Wave will make a huge impact on education.

The ability to collaborate as a team will help promote a better learning environment and a place for students to work together to solve problems whether at school or at home.

Students will also have the chance to continue asking the teacher questions and receive help after school hours, through shared waves.

I think education will have the biggest opportunity for change using Google Wave!

4. Conference & Team Integration

Because Google Wave allows for real time communication between individuals, it will make amazing headway for company teams working together on a single project as well as conferencing.

Virtual businesses will be able to communicate with each other on projects much easier and give them a better chance of surviving against brick and mortar businesses.

This will also allow companies to save money by converting their employees to a telecommute position and decreasing electric, water, and so many other costs involved in operating a physcial business.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for a long time, but with the popularity of social media websites and blogging, it has become something few do anymore.

In the past couple of years it has started making a comeback.  But it’s difficult for those new to email marketing to really get involved because they aren’t sure of how to create amazing content for those email lists that are being created.

With Google Wave, email marketers will be able to send out truly dynamic emails and respond to questions and comments as they are asked. This will also allow everyone in the email list to see and questions and answers based on the material and could possibly persuade them into performing a desired action based on an issue they may have had but was cleared up by someone else.

If the product is good enough, it could also help to build trust between the email marketer and the client by allowing them to see real-time testimonies and compliments.

There are probably many other ways Google Wave will make an impact, but I see these as the biggest uses for Google Wave.

What uses to you envision for Google Wave?

This Post Brought To You By:

Fr

IzeaFest 2009 – Get Your Ticket & A Free Pass To SeaWorld!

Bluefur Web Hosting – Save 10% with the code: steven-sanders

7 Dollar Secrets – Learn how to make $7 over and over again with your blog.

I’ll be speaking on this panel, so come check it out.  I’d love to meet you, no matter how big or small of a blogger you are.  I love meeting everyone that has something to do with this industry!

About The Event

Here’s a little about the event straight from Doterati:

“Before boarding the IZEAfest bus to Howl-o-Scream, fuel up with Doterati as we demystify blog marketing. Listen as our panel of bloggers and traditional marketers discuss this highly effective form of social media. This moderated panel will help bloggers gain a better understanding of how to fit into the traditional marketing plan while marketers learn how to incorporate blogging into their overall approach.

We will ask our traditional marketers to help bloggers understand how they perceive the blogging world, how they believe it helps them in their marketing efforts and how they integrate blog marketing into their plans and campaigns. We will also ask traditional marketers what they look for in blogging partners, how they evaluate and measure a bloggers successes and how they select bloggers.

This event is also an opportunity for bloggers to position themselves to the marketing community and help marketers understand their value proposition. What makes a blooger tick? Why should a marketer work with bloggers, both paid and non-paid? What influence can bloggers bring to marketers and how can bloggers help marketers with their “pain?”

The goal of this interactive session is to help bridge the gap to insure that marketers can tap into and use the value of blogging as part of their progressive marketing plans and how bloggers can communicate the value proposition to insure they are an integral part of the marketing mix.”

Who should attend?

Bloggers (Beginner to Advanced)

Marketers, Communications, and Agency Professionals

When:

Thursday Oct 1

1 pm to 4 pm – Panel Discussion

4 pm to 5:30 pm – Cocktails

Cost:

$39 for Doterati Members, IZEAFest Ticket Holders, Orlando Ad Fed Members & AMA Members

$49 for Non-Members

Attendees receive one free drink ticket.

Where:

SeaWorld Orlando Renaissance Hotel

6677 Sea Harbor Drive

Orlando, FL 32821

Be there, or be square!

This Post Brought To You By:

“Yesterday a vulnerability was discovered: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. As a result, the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. This doesn’t allow remote access, but it is very annoying.”

The WordPress team fixed this problem last night and have been testing the fixes and looking for other problems since then.

Download The Specific Files

If you’re running WordPress 2.7 or later, then you can simply use your automatic upgrade function built right into your version to make the upgrade, but if you’re running an earlier version or like me you sometimes have problems with the automatic upgrade utility, there is a separate file you can download and install manually that contains only the modified wordpress files.

You can download only the files modified straight from WordPress.org by clicking here.

What are your thoughts on how often WordPress releases upgrades? Security releases are unquestionable, but what about release that simply change look and functionality? Do you think they release new version too often?

This Post Brought To You By:

• The “Most Popular Posts” section never changed, so I replaced it with a new section called “Other Interesting Posts” that randomly displays posts from my blog.  I thought this would keep your reading selection as fresh as possible.
• The Subscribe To Me section was a little boring and didn’t offer enough options for you to really connect with me.  So I added more options and improved the look.
• The Headings of each different section in my sidebar didn’t stand out well enough, and made it look like everything was running together.  By making each heading stand out, I’ve effectively made navigation within each section of my sidebar easier.

What do you think of the changes?  Good or bad?  Feel free to let me know what other changes you’d like to see with a comment.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This Post Brought To You By:

The “Gadgets” session covered most of your basic gadgets you would use for blogging, whether at home or on the go, but it also briefly touched on some more advanced things, like specific products that may be better if you wanted a more professional touch.

Just like the Canon FS200.

Out With The Old

I’ve been using the Flip Video for the last couple of years (although not for this blog) and I’ve only been just satisfied with it.

I can’t say there has ever been any real excitement about picture quality, audio quality or even the fact that the zoom is almost non-existent.

That’s not to say that I don’t like my Flip.  It’s an awesome TOY.

In With The New

Since the “Gadget” session at Blogher I’ve been thinking a lot about adding video to my blog, but I don’t want to just throw something up that looks extremely amatuer.  So when the Canon FS200 was introduced to me, I knew I had to have it.

It’s not as frilly as some of the more expensive video cameras, but it does have some nice little frills for a camera that I bought for only $299.

Flash Memory

Rather than a tape, or mini-disc, the Canon FS200 records everything on a flash SD card.  This is awesome, because when I want to transfer my videos to my computer, all I have to do is remove the SD card and put it in my computer. The file format is MOD though, but a free copy of SDCopy takes care of that and quickly converts the files to MPG so I can easily edit them.

External Microphone Input

The absolute best part about the Canon FS200, and the reason why I had to have it, is the microphone input jack located on the side of the video camera.

Having the ability to use a real microphone makes a huge difference in the audio quality, and significantly helps to reduce the background noise from overshadowing the speaker.

This video camera rocks my socks off, and puts me in a position to start creating some slightly more professional videos for this blog.

Expect to see one in the very near future.

This Post Brought To You By:

They’ve changed their homepage with the main focus on search.

I think Twitter has big advantages over Google:

• The time it takes to index something of importance is just as fast as someone can type it.
• Google uses algorithms to index content.  Twitter uses real people that don’t care anything about the junk and spam that show up in Google everytime you search for something.
• Twitter gives the people a quick and very easy way to mark something as spam once it enters the Twitter stream
• Twitter beats even the news in how fast breaking stories get listed.  Google just can’t compete.

How Twitter Will Monetize Itself

I think the biggest thing to look at in terms of Twitters move in the search world is how we finally see it making money.  Those “trending topics” you see on the right side of the search results… those will eventually transform into paid links.

Search is where the money is, and Twitter knows it.  I personally believe they’ve been planning this move since day one.  Especially if you look at how Biz Stone’s relationship with Google has been.

So what do you think!  Is Twitter the new Google?  Will it become #1 for search.  If they ever figure out the issue with twitter streams not showing up after 30 days in search, I think they’ve got it nailed!

This Post Brought To You By:

I was hoping to get away with just letting them think I came to support my wife and help watch the baby.  And it worked!!!

Jokes aside, Blogher was a great experience, and I’d go again, even by myself.

The women were all amazing in the things they juggle on a daily basis, as well as their acceptance of a handful of guys showing up to their event.

And being a Make Money Online blogger, I was often looked to for advice, because “Mommy Bloggers” are  getting more interested in that subject more and more everyday.

It didn’t hurt that I was always holding the baby and getting my picture taken probably more than any single person that attended.  I can’t complain.

But what is the purpose of a guy going to blogher?  I don’t know, but I do know that I took a lot of valuable information away from the conference that I hope to implement within the next week or so.

My Blogher Experience

As a Make Money Online blogger, often-times the best people to network with at a conference are the Sponsors. And Blogher had a lot of great sponsors as well as representatives from major companies:

• Walmart
• Hewlett Packard
• Intel
• GM
• The London Times
• BlogTalkRadio
• McDonald’s
• Gatorade
• SpringPad
• Picnik
• Collective Bias
• And so many more…

As well as major companies and sponors I had the opportunity to meet the following people:

• Karson Kressley
• Paula Dean
• Lucretia Pruitt
• Stephanie Agresta
• Chris Hogan (SVP BlogTalk Radio)
• A few of Walmart’s Eleven Moms
• John Andrews (CEO Collective Bias)
• And all the other great bloggers that showed up!

My Expectations For Blogher 2010

Blogher was awesome, but there are a few things I’d like to see different for Blogher 2010, which will be in New York City:

• All business cards should have a picture of you on them.  It’d be so much easier to put a name with a face once I get home.
• The speakers were great, but I felt like some of them didn’t know anymore about the subject than a lot of the audience, or was it just me?  I’d love to have the opportunity to speak next year.  I think I could really bring some great information and experience to the table.
• The after-parties were great, but the majority of attendees showed up for the swag then went somewhere else.  I think the Bowlher party did it best when they offered something exciting to get everyone to show up early for their event (walking the red carpet) and got them to stay until the end by giving away the swag bags at the end of the event rather than beginning. If anyone is interested in sponsoring a party at next year’s Blogher, get in touch with me!

In Summary

Blogher was a great experience that I think every blogger should enjoy (male or female) and had a lot of great networking opportunities.  And aside from the minor issues that happend on occasion (nothing is perfect), I had an amazing time.

What did you think about Blogher?  Please leave a comment about it.

This Post Brought To You By:

But creating content has always been a long and sometimes tedious task that we could really only rely on ourselves to create.  So what if there was a way your readers (or commentators) could create that additional content for you?  And I’m not talking about guest posting!

Let Commentators Create Your Content

A very new and intriguing plugin just emerged in the WordPress plugins codex and unlike most of the plugins that are added, it is extremely useful.

The plugin is called SEO Super Comments, and all it does is create separate, index-able pages from the comments readers leave on your blog.  These comment “pages” contain keyword rich H1 titles based on the content of the comment as well as links to other comments left by that specific commentator.  Thus creating links back to old posts on your blog, and also increasing blog stickiness.

For a good example, click on the author’s name of any of the comments left on this blog.

Supersize My Content Please

If you are like most bloggers, you probably have 4-5 times as many comments as you do posts.  So by dynamically creating a page for every comment on your blog which all contain links to other posts on your blog, you are literally increasing your indexable content by 4-5 times as much.

The power of this plugin is phenominal, and if you aren’t using it, I suggest you start.  It’s free so why not!?!

You can download the SEO Super Comments plugin here and you can learn more about the concept behind the plugin here.

What are your thoughts on this plugin?  Are you using it?  If so, I’d love to hear how it has affected your blog!

This Post Brought To You By: