Great Article on 25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic

 Blog traffic everywhere! How do you make yours stand out?

I found this article 25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic  from Writers Digest with hints by Robert Lee Brewers a valuable compilation of timely tips to drive people not into a traffic jam of blogs, but to your specific blog. In an era with so many blogs on a variety of topics, it's important to find ways to make yours stand out among the rest. The article gives you a good headstart on doing just that. 

Why make your journey in blogdom complicated? Make it easy for you and for others to find you.   

Guest blogger Preslaysa Williams and "Writing My Life"

Blissful Life Journey welcomes guest Preslaysa Williams on the importance of journaling your life's journey. She is also offering a giveaway! See below for details on how to enter!

"Writing My Life"

Since becoming a mother…or maybe since hitting the big 3-0, I’ve been pondering death. Not in a morbid way but in an “Oh my gosh, I’m getting older and before I know it my body will hit the dirt, my spirit will rest in Jesus and sometime after that I’ll stand before God to give an account for what I’ve done with the time He’s allotted me” way.

I can be intense sometimes.

To deal with my not quite mid-life crisis, I’ve started to track my life. I take pictures. I recorded my daily activity in journals: foods I eat, times I exercise, pages I write, prayers I send up to God. Journaling allows me to get all of that mental intensity out of my brain and onto the page. However, after a few months, journaling became too cumbersome and disorganized. My entries were written in multiple notebooks and scattered throughout my house. Journaling became messy, and I eventually stopped.

So after accepting the fact I’m a left brained, creative person (go figure), I started searching for a simple way to journal. Now, I keep one journal (not five!) and it records my daily prayers and Bible reading, a simple daily ‘to do’ list and my goals for the year. I found a way to systemically keep track of all this life that passes through my fingers via seconds, minutes, hours, and days. The fact that it’s a blank journal is key. I can divide it in whatever way I want.

You can do this too. Never underestimate the power of a blank notebook. In it, you can record your life in all of its beautiful intricacies. And because it’s your journal, you can make it into anything you want…

Question for You: How do you record your sojourning on this earth?

Fun Giveaway: One lucky blog commenter will win a brand new Moleskine journal. Winner announced on February 1^st. Please leave your comment where it says "Post a Comment."

Preslaysa Williams is a wife, mom and writer. When she’s not rebooting the laundry or chasing around her toddler, you can find her typing away on her laptop. Visit her online where she blogs three times a week about her three favorite things: Faith, Family and Fiction.

 

The Job is a Journey

My journey in the work force is my writing. Long ago I did get a nursing degree and practiced for several years, but I always had a desire to write. I found that journey well on its way with my first published novel, Mountaintop. 

But like most journeys, I had to plan and prepare. And one of the greatest things I did to help me plan is go to a writers' conference. You may be in certain work areas that require you to attend workshops, in-services and the like. I did as a nurse, and it gave me a more well-rounded approach to my work and what I intended to do. Best of all, I met with others who were like minded and could rattle off ideas and share experiences. I found these times to be the most valuable at conferences, like at a writers' conference. I could share in the trials of my fellow writers when perhaps a book pitch to an editor did not go quite as planned or their triumphs when a query was accepted. 

With fellow author Diane Brandmeyer at ACFW 2009

I take in information much like a student with my notebook in hand, jotting down ideas about writing from editors and writers or how to take publication and communication to a whole new level via the Internet.  In these challenging economic times, it does good to find out all you can about your work field. To be involved as much as possible using the tools that are available. I discovered what a great tool the Internet is to connect with others. Of course like everything else, moderation is the key. You can spend your entire day online. But with your particular field of interest, you can blog (like I am now through blogspot or wordpress) share passions and dreams with others I may never meet (via Facebook, Twitter and other social networks), learn about my field, share in the disappointments and the triumphs.

I love the written word, but writing that word so that I can connect with others makes it all the more meaningful to the journey.

**There is still time to join the passionate talk of Laura Hilton’s journey through breast cancer and her book giveaway. 

The Road of Blog Touring

Our road tour as we traveled the White Mountains to search out the sites for my newest book.

Ever go touring? Like taking a nice, long Sunday drive to see the sights?
My new book, Love Finds You in Bethlehem, New Hampshire is taking a drive for the next few months to different sites on an official blog tour. I've been busy answering interview questions and sending out cover art and my bio to multiple authors to post on their blogs and web sites. And why is this important? Because the Internet is the biggest tool for marketing out there. Right at their fingertips, readers can find out more about you, why you wrote your book, and other interesting facts that will encourage them to pick up your book. It's all a part of building a readership for your books. It takes valuable time and effort, to be sure. I never used to do much in the marketing angle, and I was really missing out on the valuable tools available so authors can connect on a more personal level with readers on this journey.

So keep in touch on my Love Finds You in Bethlehem blog to see where the tour is stopping next. And along the way there will be plenty of opportunities to get a free book and other goodies, too. It will be a tour worth the journey.

I Have No Idea What to Write...

I have no idea what to write today on my blog. This is what is running through my mind as I sit here.

Usually I've had some momentous writing experience to detail in my blog for the week. Instead I spent time recounting some interesting experiences on my hike this past weekend, which I detail in my hiking blog. Perhaps that is to be my spiritual gauge for this week. The importance of blogs. Writing blogs. Blogs of every shape and size. Blogs that deal with your interests. Blogs that help you with your writing, whether they be one of inspirational content, a blog of personal interests, or a blog reviewing books and even other blogs. But they have one thing in common. They help you with your writing technique, exercising your gift, if you will, as you chronicle your journey and bring your thoughts into focus. I know many have advocated the idea of journaling as a way for writers to exercise their craft. Blogging makes that journaling come to life via the Internet - providing a place of unique publication where others can share in your words.

For me as a fiction author, it's not just writing novels, but also bringing my inner thoughts to life. To work on creating that nonfiction aspect of my career as well. Blogging has helped me do just that. From the online journal I kept when I hiked the Appalachian Trail last year with my son (and is now useful for creating my nonfiction book about the journey), to my current hiking blog that details trail experiences or even thoughts leading up to a 30 year dream come true (like the hike last year), to this blog chronicling writing ideas, they all serve an important purpose for me as a writer and you as the reader. And they are an important avenue of my writing ministry.

Hey, guess what? I found something to write about after all!